Maine Dhhs Eliminates Funding For School-based Student Health Centers

The recent state budget negotiations have prompted the Department of Health and Human Services to cut off funding for the roughly two dozen school-based student health centers in Maine that provide basic medical care and referrals for students who are unlikely to have other access to a doctor. The direct cuts to the health centers are the result of the final state budget redirecting $10 million over two years from the Fund for a Healthy Maine to maintain reimbursement rates for primary care physicians under MaineCare, the state’s version of the federal Medicaid program. “The Department of Health and Human Services was directed to cut $5 million in (Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention) services from the Fund for Healthy Maine,” DHHS spokeswoman Samantha Edwards said Wednesday.