City Health Bills Cut Funding For Schools, Study Says

Neighborhood schools, police forces and fire protection are among the services suffering from funding woes as a result of public health costs. New data from Families USA, a health coverage organization for consumers, points to increasing numbers of city employees receiving health coverage as one culprit of a nationwide budget squeeze. Community health centers are seeing a flood of uninsured individuals as local hospitals close due to budget restraints, leaving the nation’s cities to foot the bill.

The study asked mayors from thirteen metropolitan areas across the country to weigh in on health services use. Findings note that city health services project that they will be unable to continue meeting the health demand without significant effects to hospital emergency department capacity and mental health services.

According to Families USA, cities reported experiencing the following situations since 2007:

• Increased demand for services at safety net clinics (all 13 cities),
• Crowding in hospitals and hospital emergency departments (11 cities),
• Increased demand for mental health and substance abuse services (10 cities),
• Increased demand for family support services (nine cities),
• Problems affecting children in the city’s schools (seven cities), and
• Area hospital closings (four cities).