State budget cuts' impact on public health and community services

Budget Crisis

How current budget crisis impact public Health & Community services individual states? 1) Colorado 2) South Carolina 3) New Hampshire 4) California 5) Arizona 6) Oklahoma 7) Virginia

How does the current budget crisis impact the public health & community services in the following individual states?

Colorado

Even before the current crisis, Colorado ranked "near the bottom when compared to other states for covering families and children for health care" (Anderson 2011). Now, because of recent budget cuts, healthcare services are likely to suffer further. For some healthcare centers, cuts will comprise up to 20% of their annual operating budgets. The need for services has increased, given that job losses mean that more people are reliant upon state assistance. "Demand is up as much as 40% by Medicaid patients and 23% by the uninsured" (Anderson 2011). Public clinics are closing or laying off staff and reducing hours because of $32.4 million in state budget cuts. "These cuts jeopardize care to 48,175 patients, at an annual cost of only $685 per patient" (Anderson 2011).

South Carolina

Budget cuts in South Carolina resulted in slashes to its AIDS drug assistance program. "The program provides AIDS medication to about 2,000 people who cannot afford the medication on their own" (Shahnazarian 2010). Full-blown AIDS can resurface in patients who do not receive continual treatment with medications. Another provision that has been criticized is the elimination of breast cancer screenings for 16,000 poor South Carolina women. This has been seen as 'pennywise but pound foolish' given that breast cancer is much less expensive to treat as well as less deadly if detected early on (Shahnazarian 2010).

New Hampshire

Cuts in New Hampshire have resulted in cuts of healthcare services as well as jobs. "Hospitals lost more than $115 million and laid off more than 1,000 staffers" (State budget cuts hurt health, higher education the most, 2011, NPR)

California

California's overall structural budget deficits have exceeded $70 billion and at the height of the recent financial crisis, its unemployment rate rose to 12.2. The state has seen an estimated 10-50% increase in demand for health services. There has been a 'perfect storm' of need combined with an inability to meet that need. "All state General Fund dollars were eliminated for California's Traditional Clinic Programs (used to provide care to uninsured, rural, Native American, and farm worker populations); 60% of California's CHIP program (Healthy Families) was eliminated; and additional reductions were made to Adult Day Health Centers (ADHCs), HIV / AIDS programs" (Kirk 2011). The cut listed as the most troubling was "the loss of adult dental, the largest Medi-Cal Optional Benefit...it serves 2.8 million recipients statewide" (Kirk 2011).

Arizona

Arizona's healthcare system experienced extensive budget cuts: the new budget ended KidsCare, a children's healthcare program providing 47,000 low-income children with assistance. $385 million was cut from the state Medicaid program, resulting in 310,000 adults to lose their coverage (Olmos 2010). Arizona's high immigrant population and the fact that it was particularly hard-hit by the housing crisis means that it is also facing a situation of expanding need for healthcare services coupled with less funds with which to provide aid.

Virginia

In an effort to close its budget shortfall, Virginia has also radically slashed its budget for mental health services. The governor proposed to close "several mental health facilities and cut funding to programs that provide crisis treatment for the mentally ill" (Kaine's budget proposal: Cut mental health services, facilities, 2009, Hampton Roads). Previously, because of a highly-publicized rampage by a mentally ill student on the Virginia Tech campus, the state had generously funded mental health services. The budget had "12.2 million cut for community service boards that provide treatment and crisis services" (Kaine's budget proposal: Cut mental health services, facilities, 2009, Hampton Roads).