A new brief from the Geiger Gibson/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative finds that an extraordinary need for publicly subsidized health services amidst an unprecedented economic crisis is putting Puerto Rico’s community health centers in jeopardy. A higher proportion of Puerto Rico’s population – nearly 1 person in 10 – depends on community health centers for their care, as compared with 1 in 14 on the mainland. Yet with more than 75 percent of those served by Puerto Rico’s health centers covered by Medicare, Medicaid, or both, reimbursement rates far lower than stateside, no tax subsidies for private coverage, and 12 percent remaining uninsured, that care is at risk. An exodus of health professionals has served to deepen the crisis.
43. “Puerto Rico’s Community Health Centers in a Time of Crisis”.
