BACKGROUND
More than 40 years ago, Congress began funding community health centers in an effort to extend basic care to Americans who lacked the means to get adequate care.
Since then, health centers have efficiently and economically delivered care that has provided the additional benefit of lower emergency room use, reduced hospital admissions, and less need for specialty care. Because the costs to deliver those services typically shift to deeper pockets — the insured populace, and government — health center services have saved billions for taxpayers and private insurance programs.
In 2002, Congress reauthorized the Federal Health Centers Program through 2006. Since then, steady increases in federal funding have extended effective, affordable primary care to 5 million more Americans. More than 900 communities across the country have benefited from new or expanded facilities.
Now serving more than 17 million Americans, health centers expect to be serving 30 million patients by 2015. To do so, they will depend on sustained and expanded federal support. To defend past gains and build toward future needs, the NACHC urges Congress to preserve and strengthen access to affordable health care by:
(1) Reauthorizing the Health Centers program for at least 5 years, and preserving its core elements;
(2) Including specific funding targets for growth to help reach 30 million underserved people by 2015; and,
(3) Reauthorizing other key programs, including the National Health Service Corps, and key health professions programs.
In particular, the NACHC supports the following components of the Public Health Service Act:
- Section 330 of the Public Health Service Act, which includes requirements that …
(1) centers provide comprehensive preventive and primary health care, together with services that make care more accessible and more effective (services such as transportation and disease management);
(2) each Health Center is run by a patient-majority governing board to ensure responsiveness and accountability to community needs;
(3) services be made available to all local residents regardless of ability to pay;
(4) federal resources be focused on communities with the most significant health care access needs; and,
(5) every Health Center is held to high standards for performance and accountability. - Reauthorization and expansion of the National Health Service Corps. To help urban and rural communities with serious shortages of health care providers, the National Health Service Corps assigns more than 4,000 physicians, dentists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurse midwives, and behavioral health professionals – about half of them working at health centers. They provide health care to nearly 5 million Americans. Growth of the NHSC would better serve communities with shortages of health care providers and fill vacancies at Health Centers.
- Title VII and VIII Health Professions programs, which address key health care workforce needs by:
(1) stemming shortages and increasing the supply and distribution of primary care providers
(2) creating more diverse and culturally competent health professionals
(3) creating closer connections with health centers to support their expansion.
