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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Cuts Hazardous to Michigan Patients' Health?

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Tuesday, February 15, 2011   

LANSING, Mich. - Many uninsured Michigan residents could lose access to a program that offers preventive health care if Congress follows through with plans for a 60 percent cut to Community Health Centers.

Michigan's 29 federally qualified health centers serve mostly uninsured patients at 170 clinics across the state. Doug Paterson, director of state policy for Michigan Primary Care Association, says the clinics serve as the "medical homes" for nearly 600,000 Michigan residents.

"The mission of all of the community health centers is that they'll serve anybody that walks in the door regardless of income or regardless of insurance status. So they've been a major part of how we take care of a lot of the people in this country that wouldn't otherwise have access."

Nearly 70 percent of patients who use community health centers are below the poverty line, and some of those patients also use Medicaid to pay for medical expenses. By offering preventive care at the community health centers, Paterson says, patients often can avoid emergency rooms and Medicaid costs. He says funding the centers saves taxpayer dollars and helps keep insurance premiums down.

"People suffer until it gets to a point where they have to go to an emergency room or receive care somewhere else, which means they ultimately get that, that's often uncompensated care in a hospital. The hospitals then pass that cost along to their other insurers or so on, so premiums go up for everyone else."

With Michigan's recession and many people losing insurance, Paterson says, demand has increased exponentially. He adds that since health-care reform is not yet in place, the state's uninsured continue to need access to preventive care. Under the current budget plan, the Michigan Health Centers Program would lose about $1.3 billion in federal dollars.


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