Given that the community clinics are apparently our brave leader’s only thoughts about how to provide care for the poor in America, it’s pretty timely that a new California Health Care Foundation study is out giving a primer on safety net clinics in California (PDF). And of course the population they serve is often underserved, uninsured, doesn’t speak English, and is growing. Here’s the conclusion.

SAFETY-NET CLINICS HAVE BECOME INDISPENSABLE components of the health care system for vulnerable and underserved populations. However, these clinics rely on a patchwork of funding sources to provide comprehensive primary care and preventive services in the communities they serve. In the current operational climate these clinics face major challenges to longterm sustainability and expansion to meet the needs of growing numbers of uninsured

Note: I have worked recently for CHCF, and while as a Foundation it cannot take political stances or voice exact opinions, I can only applaud its efforts in shining a bright light into the murkier parts of our nation’s health care "policy"