Medical assistant student Helda McCauley, center, translates for certified physician assistant Sue Covington, right, to communicate with a patient at Doctors Care clinic in Littleton on Thursday, May 30, 2024. Doctors Care is a member of the Colorado Safety Net Collaborative.
We opted to speak out together on this critical issue because we represent a large swath of what people euphemistically call the safety net — community mental health centers across the state. The Colorado Behavioral Healthcare Council and the Colorado Safety Net Collaborative are the organizations that provide mental health care to families and individuals who would not otherwise be able to afford it.
Safety net clinics serving the uninsured simply have higher demand for their services with declining funding sources to cover the costs, even though paying for clinic care is exponentially less expensive than someone going to the emergency room. And if the clinic has declining Medicaid enrollment, that likely means the same result as the community health centers and other safety net providers that have had to let staff go.
Bear in mind that people don’t stop needing or seeking care if they don’t have Medicaid or insurance. We have heard sobering stories from individuals who were in the hospital when they got notice that they no longer had Medicaid coverage. And providers are desperately trying to preserve critically important but underfunded programs.