Budget is secure, but county health system bracing for rush on services. (Health Care).It's hard to believe, but $3.6 billion in state health spending cuts Noun 1. spending cut - the act of reducing spending cut - the act of reducing the amount or number; "the mayor proposed extensive cuts in the city budget" proposed by Gov. Gray Davis may not worsen wors·en tr. & intr.v. wors·ened, wors·en·ing, wors·ens To make or become worse. worsen Verb to make or become worse worsening adjn the county Health Services health services Managed care The benefits covered under a health contract Department's own budget crisis by much. Nor may it affect a state-and-county deal to bail out the department, which county officials say could come any week now. At least that's the initial take of county health officials. Though the county budget may lose more than $700 million in state funds, the direct hit on the $2.9 billion county Health Department budget is relatively minimal since most health care cuts in L.A. County will be borne by individual recipients of state Medi-Cal insurance. The cuts mean up to 200,000 more poor county residents will lose a way to pay for health care--and that's certain to send even more ill folks to already crowded county-owned emergency rooms. But the county is already a medical provider of last resort for an estimated 2 million uninsured county residents, and the facilities are already overrun 1. overrun - A frequent consequence of data arriving faster than it can be consumed, especially in serial line communications. For example, at 9600 baud there is almost exactly one character per millisecond, so if a silo can hold only two characters and the machine takes . So while the county will likely lose some revenue, it can't serve all the patients anyway. Given the magnitude of the state cuts, however, county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky Zev Yaroslavsky (born December 21, 1948) is a Los Angeles County politician. He served on the Los Angeles City Council from 1975 until 1994, when he was elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. He was preceded in both offices by Edmund D. Edelman. is concerned that the county's loss of state funds could cut into the $160 million or so the Health Department receives annually from the county general fund. This could lead to a hospital closure, he said. Such drastic measures were supposedly averted with the passage of Measure B in November, which funnels some $170 million annually to county emergency and trauma services. County officials say they're close to agreement on a federal bailout bailout The financial rescue of a faltering business or other organization. Government guarantees for loans made to Chrysler Corporation constituted a bailout. , which also wouldn't be directly affected by the state cutbacks. Staff reporter Laurence Darmiento can be reached at (323) 549-5225 ext. 237 or at ldarmiento@labusinessjournal.com |
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