Young medical professionals aren’t the only ones worried about a repeal of the Affordable Care Act under the new White House administration and Congress. Those who care for low-income patients also worry about the funding for federal health programs.
Incomes for physicians at federally qualified health centers are tied to funding by the federal government, notes the International Business Times, and many of the patients seen at those facilities are poor, uninsured or insured by Medicaid and Medicare.
That makes physicians like Danny Neghassi, M.D., who works at Heritage Health Center in New York City, nervous. His salary at Heritage isn’t enough to pay his student loans, he told the publication, so he has applied for the National Health Service Corps Scholarship, a program offered by the Department of Health and Human Services that gives loan repayments in increments of $50,000 for every two years of nonprofit work.
The funding, however, isn’t guaranteed and Neghassi worries that decisions that Trump and his pick for new HHS secretary make impact the student loan scholarship program.
Although Trump has promised not to cut Medicare, the future of health programs for low-income families is also in jeopardy and on Neghassi's mind.
"Generally, there is always a market for doctors,” Neghassi told the publication. “My main concern is people’s access to affordable healthcare—particularly women, [members of] low-income communities and immigrants.”