Will someone please explain the logic behind proposed cuts to the budgets of community health centers? Ellen-Marie Whelan, Phd, RN, Senior Health Policy Analyst and Associate Director of Health Policy at the Center for American Progress (and CHMP National Advisory Council member) reports that proposed cuts to the budget and repeal of the Affordable Care Act would eliminate jobs and impede our countries mandate to build a better primary care infrastructure to control health care costs: “Repeal of the Affordable Care Act and the new funding it provides to community health centers will eliminate nearly 300,000 jobs in 2015. We estimate that when the proposed budget cuts in funding for the rest of the 2011 fiscal year are combined with health center funds lost through repeal of the Affordable Care Act, more than 178,000 jobs would be lost this year alone.” I see no rational reason to make these cuts. Do you? (Read her full report at http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/02/healthcenters.html)
Diana J. Mason, PhD, RN, FAAN, Rudin Professor of Nursing