Free health clinics feel the strain as patient list grows and funding shrinks

As federal funding continues to decline, community health centers throughout Florida have been hit with more uninsured patients in the past couple of years. The Florida Association of Community Health Centers' 221 facilities in the state treated a total of more than 700,000 patients who were on Medicaid or uninsured in 2007. That was nearly 60,000 more patients than 2006, and 40,000 of those were uninsured. Representatives from the Association expect the number of people who need services to increase as the county population swells and the economy tightens.