Drastic cuts in funding to community health care providers in recent years have left the Mission District and other area neighborhoods scarred from a series of shutdowns, mergers and slashed services at local clinics.
The Great Recession and its economic stronghold on health care has undeniably caused major changes in community health clinics in the city and county of San Francisco, the state of California and across the nation.
“Back in 2008 when the economic recession started we lost an initial $300,000 in private funding,” says CEO and Executive Director of Mission Neighborhood Health Center (MNCH) Brenda Storey. “Consecutively in 2009 and 2010 we had another $300,000 in funding cut from the Early Access to Primary Care program. So, in the past three years we lost about $1 million in funds. The loss of these funds are specific to caring for the low-income and uninsured and is impacting our ability to expand services,” Storey explains. “We are expected to expand services and hours of operation. The mere $200,000 we received in grants to aid this problem hardly makes up for our loss.”
Due to the ubiquitous lack of funds, it has become difficult for nonprofit clinics to pay their staff or to remain open at all.
“We had to reduce our staff salary by 12.5 percent for 6 months back in 2008,” Storey says. “We recently cut our Podiatry services by 50 percent, and Medi-Cal completely eliminated Podiatry as an optional service for its patients.”
The absolute necessity of these clinics and their services are only becoming more apparent as the state of the economy remains dire.
“Given the economic climate,” Storey says, “more people are becoming unemployed and therefore our clinics have an increased population of uninsured patients; 26 to 27 percent of our patients are Medi-Cal recipients and 67 percent have no insurance at all.”
Economy and Mission Health Clinic
Remaining revenue from private and government grants are not enough to keep up with rising health care costs. Budget cuts in health care aren’t just affecting one demographic either – it has infiltrated every stage of life. MNHC offers care throughout the life cycle: pre-natal care and pediatrics, a teen clinic, Women’s care, HIV services, adult medicine, preventative care and even services for the homeless. As one of the only health clinics in San Francisco with such comprehensive services specifically targeting uninsured and low-income populations, it is vital for the health and well-being of the community.
On a daily basis MNCH sees about 200 patients, and in 2008 alone MNHC provided 70,238 health care visits to 12,222 patients. The homeless center sees on average 280 patients each day. These numbers are not expected to decrease any time in the near future.
Now more than ever, MNHC needs support to continue its 40 year legacy as the only community-based health center in San Francisco to provide comprehensive, bilingual and culturally sensitive primary care services to the low-income and predominantly Latino population of the Mission and Excelsior neighborhoods.
As 2014 and the implementation of Obama Care approaches, there is a lot of debate as to who will benefit from heath care reform. “I think health care reform will go a long way in insuring most people in the country,” Storey says. “Unfortunately, often times populations like the undocumented, the homeless and those with mental disabilities fall through the cracks. This just speaks to the importance of safety net services like ours. We are preparing for the health care reform, so that we can remain here in the Mission and be a provider to those who need us.”