Community health centers hope Medicaid expansion will replace deep funding cuts

Funding cuts have forced nonprofit community health centers in Washington to lay off staff, reduce hours and dip into reserves as they struggle to provide care to the state’s poorest residents. Now these organizations are holding out hope that the state will expand Medicaid coverage for the poor – a move that would mean a larger number of their patients would have coverage and the organizations would start to get paid for more of this care. In Washington state, 35 percent of community health…