Last week Attorney General Aaron Ford visited Northern Nevada HOPES and the Community Health Alliance clinic to meet with staff from federally qualified health centers.
During the meeting, he learned how the Trump administration’s proposed federal rollbacks to Medicaid and public health funding are already disrupting services and how health centers will be impacted.
“Thirty percent of the patients here at HOPES are on Medicaid,” Ford said. “And so what happens — they won’t be able to get services, or they’ll have to get what’s called slide services that don’t even cover the cost of a receptionist.”
Sliding-scale services adjust the cost of medical care based on a patient’s ability to pay. The less income a patient has, the less they pay — even receiving free care if their income is very low.
While these services exist, the payments collected often aren’t enough to cover the actual costs of running the clinic.
Ford said his office is continuing legal efforts to block federal cuts, including a lawsuit to protect approximately $35 million in public health grants.
Sharon Chamberlain, CEO of HOPES, said the rollbacks would force health centers to rethink their entire service delivery model and potentially cut services, rendering it “much less effective and impactful.”
Chamberlain said that without support from legal efforts by the Attorney General’s office, care could shift from preventive services to more expensive emergency room visits.
“If Medicaid rolls back, what we know is that the health issues that those people are living with do not go away,” she said.
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