City Budget
Philadelphia City Council begins another week of budget hearings and today council members consider giving the health department a raise.
By Kerry Grens, WHYY Health and Science Desk
WHYY News, March 31, 2008
For many of Philadelphia's poor and uninsured, the only choice for health care is one of the city's nine health centers. These centers have been operating for years on shoe-string budgets.
According to John Dodds, director of the Philadelphia Unemployment, these health centers are critical but in need of a dramatic boost in resources.
"There is a very, very long waiting list to get into a city health center for a new patient," said Dodds. "What we found is four to six months for people trying to access health centers as new patients."
Dodds said that he is pleased with Mayor Michael Nutter's latest proposal to boost the funding for the health department by $3 million.
Other healthcare advocates question whether the budget's increase will be adequate to serve the growing numbers of undocumented immigrants and their children, who rely on the centers for care.
Of the $3 million for the health department, the exact amount allocated to the health centers has not been determined. Budget Director Stephen Agostini called the health centers a priority.
"The deputy mayor [of Health and Opportunity] Dr. [Donald] Schwarz will be looking at what his priorities are, but the intent is to shore that component of our health system up," said Agostini.
Today, City Council is scheduled to hear testimony on the budgets of the Department of Public Health and the Department of Human Services.
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