Health centers avert cut of $1.65M
By Gordon Y.K. Pang and Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Staff Writers
State Health Director Chiyome Fukino last night said a $1.65 million appropriation to the state's 10 community health centers won't be cut after all.
Earlier this week, community health leaders publicly criticized the Lingle administration for cutting the money in an effort to help balance the budget. They said the money was critical to help the private, nonprofit health centers care for patients with no health insurance and who face other barriers to medical care.
Fukino said budget analysts had targeted the money because it had been left unspent halfway into the fiscal year and believed it could be used to help balance the state's general fund operating budget.
But health and budget officials have since determined that money was tapped from the state's rainy-day fund, as a one-time appropriation, which would not help balance the general fund, she said.
"Now that everything has been cleared up, the money will still be there and it will be released," Fukino said. The money is for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30.
"We really appreciate what the governor is doing," said Rep. Michael Kahikina, D-44th (Nanakuli, Honokai Hale), chairman of the House Human Services Committee. "This is a clear indication that the governor does support (the community health centers) and sees the needs."
Rep. Scott Nishimoto, D-21st (Kapahulu, Diamond Head), said he received scores of phone calls from constituents worried about the loss of financing to the Waikiki Health Center in his district. "For many people, it's the last place they can go," said Nishimoto, vice chairman of the Health Committee.
The community health centers have been invaluable to residents such as Jonell Eiland, 55, who participates in a diabetes clinic at the Kalihi-Palama Health Center and gets her medication there for free.
When Eiland took a part-time job last year, she found herself without health insurance for the first time in decades of employment. Then she was diagnosed with high blood pressure and diabetes, and her doctor put her on pills that cost $50 for a 3-day supply.
Since she has been getting treatment at the center, she said her blood pressure has improved from 190/200 to 140/92.
"Without this clinic," she said, "I would be up a creek."
The centers "take care of people who otherwise fall through the cracks," said Beth Giesting, executive director of the Hawai'i Primary Care Association. The group's members include nine of the 10 community health centers (the exception is the Wai'anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center).
She said the centers' clientele faces barriers to care that are more than financial: cultural, language, transportation. Often people who go to community health centers have multiple problems that private doctors aren't set up to handle, she said, such as substance abuse, a combination of chronic diseases and/or domestic violence.
Family Nurse Practitioner Anne Leake, who has worked at the Kalihi-Palama center for nearly eight years, said the staff works through the Hawai'i Primary Care Association to get free medication for patients from a medicine bank that receives drugs with a short shelf life.
Wilson Ho, chairman of the Waimanalo Neighborhood Board and treasurer of the board of directors of Waimanalo Health Center, said the cuts would have left many people without a place to go.
"They are the life and breath of the communities they serve," Ho said. "They take care of all of those people that cannot get help, that cannot afford help."
Fukino said the state still needs to determine what will happen with the financing beyond this coming year. "The bottom line is we have to work on long-term solutions," she said.
