Listen to an audio story by Annenberg Radio News
The waiting room at the Eisner Pediatric and Family Medical Center is buzzing: about three dozen people, half of them children, sit on tall-backed, white benches. Nurses call them into clean white hallways with olive-green door trim. A sign above each reception desk promises, “No one will be denied immunizations because of inability to pay.”
But about a third of this public clinic’s funding comes from Medi-Cal, California’s division of federal aid program Medicaid – and the White House just approved California’s plan to cut funding for Medi-Cal, which allows poor and disabled Californians to see doctors regularly, by 10 percent in the 2012 budget.
Furthermore, the Congressional “Super-committee,” which convened this summer to reduce the federal deficit, is scouring Medicaid for potential cuts.
Louise McCarthy is the CEO and President of the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County, which comprises 47 centers like Eisner. Together, they serve about a million patients every year. A third of those patients rely on Med-Cal.
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