Health centers see threat from 'private option' Medicaid

In this sleepy Mississippi River Delta town in eastern Arkansas, the community health center that opened in 2012 stands out among the downtown's mostly abandoned buildings constructed over a half century earlier. The 15,000 square-foot brick building with its two-story lobby and green awnings was paid for through a $2.8 million grant from the Affordable Care Act — a federal investment designed to ensure the nonprofit clinic could treat hundreds of additional patients, many of whom would gain health coverage under Obamacare. Now, though, Mid-Delta Health Systems is worried it won't have enough money to maintain services to low-income patients because of how the state is expanding Medicaid.