Public Health Centers Struggle to Keep Up

Hospital officials say the recession has hit them hard. Hospital funds lost money in the stock market like everyone else. Charitable donations are drying up. It's harder to borrow from banks or through tax-exempt bonds. Medicaid funding, which depends on state tax revenues, is precarious. And more affluent patients - whose business offsets the unreimbursed care of the uninsured - are cutting back on elective procedures and other care.