Community clinics and their patients in San Diego will be some of the biggest beneficiaries of the new health reform package.
The overhaul will expand eligibility for Medi-Cal, and will give subsidies to hundreds of thousands of San Diegans to buy insurance.
The health care bill will also distribute $11 billion to community clinics nationwide, for new staff and more services.
Tracy Ream heads up Neighborhood Health Care, a network of 11 community clinics in San Diego and Riverside Counties.
"It probably means that we'll be stronger," Ream says, "because it's very difficult for us financially to continue to serve an expanded base of individuals who can't pay the full cost of their care."
New money for clinics will be available this year. Some of the other provisions of the bill won't take effect until 2014.
