Better Health, Better Choices in Your Community
A new health center or access point in a community is good news because more people will have access to quality, affordable health care through a health care home. Widened access to preventive care brings better public health through the whole health care approach of treating people before they become sick.
A health center constantly tailors its approach to meet the public health needs of the community, whether that need is diabetes, pesticides or an antibiotic resistant staph infection. How this is accomplished is through a patient-majority governing board that determines how the health care services are delivered. The health center approach is as unique and diverse as the community it serves.
A new health center in the neighborhood means fewer unmet medical needs in your community and more health care choices for consumers, whether they have an insurance card or don’t. The quality of health care services is the same for everyone once they walk in the door.
Lower Health Care Costs for Your Community
Lower health care costs are also an added benefit of having a health center in your community. Medical expenses for health center patients are 41 percent lower compared to patients seen elsewhere – $1,810 per person annually. By keeping health care costs to a minimum, health centers are generating costs savings for the entire health care system. Nationwide, the Community Health Centers save the health care system between $9.9 and $17.6 billion a year.
More Jobs
Health centers are good for the local economy, purchasing goods and services from local businesses, generating capital development projects and create jobs. Community Health Centers have an overall economic impact of $12.6 billion, and produced 143,000 jobs across the nation.
