State Health Watch Archives – June 1, 2004
June 1, 2004
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Government seeks to end states’ questionable Medicaid financing
For many years, states strapped for sufficient funds for their Medicaid programs and for all other state activities have looked for creative legal ways to obtain additional support from the federal government. Among the techniques that have been used are excessive payments to state-owned health facilities, provider taxes and donations, excessive disproportionate share payments to hospitals, and adjustments to upper payment limits. -
Fiscal Fitness: How States Cope
While considerable attention routinely is focused on the number of people who dont have health insurance coverage, another important statistic is the number of people often including those who have insurance who dont have access to basic medical care, generally because they live in communities with an acute shortage of health care providers. -
Health center serves one-third of a four-county area in rural Texas
Eighty miles west of San Antonio, Community Health Development Inc., based in Uvalde, has operated for 20 years, serving 10,000 people or one-third of the population of a four-county area through three service sites. -
Grants help strongest, most capable communities
Federal grants under Community Health Center expansion and the Community Access Program have helped some communities strengthen their health care safety-net services, but only work best in communities that already have a solid infrastructure, strong leadership, and additional sources of income. -
Budget cutters haven’t taken aim at SCHIP
While states have been scrambling for places to save money, especially in Medicaid and other health care services, so far most governors and legislatures have shied away from doing major damage to the State Childrens Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), according to an analysis released by Harriette Fox and Stephanie Limb of the Maternal and Child Health Policy Research Center. -
Psychological aspects of terrorism need addressing
An interdisciplinary task force of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology created in 2003 says our nations leaders have taken steps to prepare for future terrorist attacks in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, events, but have made far fewer preparations for a pervasive effect of any attack its psychological impact. -
Americans understand the psychological threat of terrorism and want help
Americans know that terrorism is psychological warfare designed to cause fear and distress among the public. And most Americans believe the United States will experience a terrorist attack in the near future.