LATINO HEALTH: Funding Shortfalls Strain Clinics
Community clinics in San Diego have long struggled to piece together funding to provide medical care to the uninsured, particularly those in the Latino community, writes Ed Martinez, CEO of the San Ysidro Health Center, in today's San Diego Union-Tribune. Martinez points to a recent study that found San Diego ranks last among all California counties in terms of health care spending for the uninsured. This shortfall is felt more acutely by Latinos because of state and county programs that continue to restrict eligibility requirements and are essentially "participation barriers," Martinez argues. These funding constraints and access barriers represent "a crisis situation" for the county's Latino community, which already accounts for "slightly more than half of the uninsured in San Diego County." Commending the San Diego Board of Supervisors' decision to funnel the windfall from the tobacco settlement to health-related services, Martinez says the board created "a great opportunity for our community to develop a more humane system for delivering medical care to those in great need" (3/30).
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