As the health care safety net, you bear the burden of these trends in the numbers of the uninsured more than any other sector of the health care industry. We know that the environment you work in is challenging. Increasing needs, changing demographics and managed care restrictions make access to care more and more difficult for your patients. You are implementing new services but having to cut back on existing services to do so. Technology and pharmaceutical prices, among other items, have caused escalating costs.
Consumers demand expensive pharmaceuticals they see advertised in magazines and on television.
Increasing competition for patients necessitates increased outreach and education programs while the funding to start them is not readily available. We know these challenges exist. We are aware and concerned about your struggles to compete. But, as the research from Johns Hopkins demonstrates, by strengthening the delivery of primary care to underserved populations, by facilitating their access to that care, we can improve health status measures. That is our mission.