“Health centers serving Richmond’s poorest residents say they’re being squeezed from two directions at once.
A growing share of their patients have no insurance. Meanwhile, federal programs that pay for free care are facing major cuts.
The result is a looming budget crunch that threatens to close clinic locations and force more patients to turn to emergency rooms for basic care, said Anita Bennett, director of the Daily Planet Health Services, which operates 10 locations in the Richmond area and saw almost 10,000 patients last year.”