As lawmakers debate how they will trim budgets everywhere and reduce the federal deficit, Catholic health care organizations, like the wider health care industry, continue to deal with the challenges of delivering medical care with fewer resources. Like others, they are looking for new ways to treat poor and uninsured patients, bring physicians to rural areas despite a nationwide shortage, and continue to survive in a rapidly changing landscape. In addition, Catholic health care faces challenges the rest of health care does not: challenges of maintaining identity grounded in the mission of its founders to care for the poor and uninsured.
