Have you heard the news? Due to the public budget deficit, local officials are planning to eliminate subsidy for Arizona’s KidsCare, the state health program that covers 47,000 children of the working poor. Gov. Jan Brewer initiated this plan to cope with Arizona’s $5-billion budget shortfall. Now the question is how then can these uninsured low-income families deal with the situation? It looks like they have only two options: take their children to crowded community clinics or to hospital emergency rooms.

If you think that’s the worst, continue reading to find more about the cost-cutting methods that would affect Arizona health care. Another program facing cuts is Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) Administration, Arizona’s Medicaid agency. Tara Plese, director of government and media relations for the Arizona Association of Community Health Care Centers, says that means several clinics around the state may have to close for lack of revenue.

“It wouldn’t be in all communities, and it may just be that some of the services that some of these clinics now provide like dentistry or pharmacy, would be the first cut.”

So what’s going to happen now? If parents have no other health care option for their children except emergency rooms, Plese says everyone who does have insurance will pick up the tab as costs are passed on through higher prices. Like community health centers, emergency rooms are required by federal law to treat everyone regardless of ability to pay. But, she says the costs must still be covered somehow.