Calling on Washington to Fund Community Health Centers
The biggest share of federal funding for Community Health Centers,
like Care for the Homeless, expired with the end of the federal fiscal
year on September 30, 2017 – that’s 124 days ago. Of course, we
weren’t alone: at the same time funding for CHIP (Childrens’ Health
Insurance Program), the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) and
the Teaching Health Centers Graduate Medical Education program
(THCCME) all expired. When authorization for federal funding through
these programs expires that is sometimes referred to as “going over
the fiscal cliff.”
Going over the fiscal cliff isn’t corrected by Congress just passing a Continuing Resolution to keep funding government temporarily for a short period of time. They need to pass language specifically extending the program that expired. When they passed a three week Continuing Resolution they did that for CHIP, but not for the Community Health Center Fund that provides 70% of the federal funding for community health centers across the country. And with more than one-third of the federal fiscal year already gone, they really need to do that. While we celebrate and appreciate the six year extension to CHIP, and the 8.9 million children served under that program, we’re asking our supporters to contact their Members of Congress to ask that community health center funding be restored when the temporary funding from the current CR runs out next week.
Community Health Centers across America serve our most vulnerable populations. We provide access to many people who might otherwise not get regular access to healthcare. We are the best tool in the fight to decrease and eliminate health disparities based on income and wealth. We’re the front line in fighting the opioid crisis.
Study after study shows community health centers deliver high quality care at far lower than average costs. And, like CHIP, we are a critical part of America’s health delivery system for vulnerable children and other vulnerable people. In fact, of the 27 million individual patients served each year through about 10,000 Community Health Centers across the United States, about 7.5 million are children, including many of the children eligible under CHIP. Community health centers deliver healthcare to over 1.2 million people experiencing homelessness each year, including the 8,000 patients we at Care for the Homeless serve each year. Frankly, if health center funding isn’t restored, and CHCs have to cut back hours, cut back their range of services, and in some cases close, our patients will wind up far sicker at emergency rooms, overwhelming the public hospital systems and with far less satisfactory health outcomes at far greater cost in public resources.
Community health centers are in the most vulnerable communities with the greatest healthcare needs. CHCs never turn anyone away because they don’t have healthcare insurance, or because they can’t pay. They never turn anyone away because they don’t have housing, or documentation. We always serve people in need.
If that convinces you that restoring the Community Health Center Fund is both the right thing and the economical thing to do, it’s not surprising. For over 50 years, community health centers have enjoyed widely bipartisan support in both the U.S. House and Senate. Restoring the fund still does have widespread bipartisan support. We’re confident that if we can get a vote on extending the Community Health Center Fund it will overwhelmingly pass.
That’s where all of us come in. Now, today if you can, your voice is needed with this very specific message: We Need to Extend the Community Health Center Fund next week in whatever measure Congress passes to keep the government open – just like they extended CHIP in the last Continuing Resolution two weeks ago. That will only happen if enough people convince their representatives in Congress to push their leadership to do it. The vote is likely to come next Wednesday, so you must call your representatives today to make a difference.
One of the best ways to contact your Member of the House and Senate is by using the National Association of Community Health Centers call in action line at 866-456-3949. If you don’t know who your Congressperson or Senator is, they can tell you, and connect to their office. They can provide you with information, or answer questions you may have. But we need you to make that call today to make a difference.
Care for the Homeless will be represented next Tuesday at the community health center advocacy rally in Washington trying to get Congress to act. Your call, today, is even more important.
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Nurse Practitioner, Joy Favuzza providing care to a client at a CFH Community Health Center. |
Going over the fiscal cliff isn’t corrected by Congress just passing a Continuing Resolution to keep funding government temporarily for a short period of time. They need to pass language specifically extending the program that expired. When they passed a three week Continuing Resolution they did that for CHIP, but not for the Community Health Center Fund that provides 70% of the federal funding for community health centers across the country. And with more than one-third of the federal fiscal year already gone, they really need to do that. While we celebrate and appreciate the six year extension to CHIP, and the 8.9 million children served under that program, we’re asking our supporters to contact their Members of Congress to ask that community health center funding be restored when the temporary funding from the current CR runs out next week.
Community Health Centers across America serve our most vulnerable populations. We provide access to many people who might otherwise not get regular access to healthcare. We are the best tool in the fight to decrease and eliminate health disparities based on income and wealth. We’re the front line in fighting the opioid crisis.
Study after study shows community health centers deliver high quality care at far lower than average costs. And, like CHIP, we are a critical part of America’s health delivery system for vulnerable children and other vulnerable people. In fact, of the 27 million individual patients served each year through about 10,000 Community Health Centers across the United States, about 7.5 million are children, including many of the children eligible under CHIP. Community health centers deliver healthcare to over 1.2 million people experiencing homelessness each year, including the 8,000 patients we at Care for the Homeless serve each year. Frankly, if health center funding isn’t restored, and CHCs have to cut back hours, cut back their range of services, and in some cases close, our patients will wind up far sicker at emergency rooms, overwhelming the public hospital systems and with far less satisfactory health outcomes at far greater cost in public resources.
Community health centers are in the most vulnerable communities with the greatest healthcare needs. CHCs never turn anyone away because they don’t have healthcare insurance, or because they can’t pay. They never turn anyone away because they don’t have housing, or documentation. We always serve people in need.
If that convinces you that restoring the Community Health Center Fund is both the right thing and the economical thing to do, it’s not surprising. For over 50 years, community health centers have enjoyed widely bipartisan support in both the U.S. House and Senate. Restoring the fund still does have widespread bipartisan support. We’re confident that if we can get a vote on extending the Community Health Center Fund it will overwhelmingly pass.
That’s where all of us come in. Now, today if you can, your voice is needed with this very specific message: We Need to Extend the Community Health Center Fund next week in whatever measure Congress passes to keep the government open – just like they extended CHIP in the last Continuing Resolution two weeks ago. That will only happen if enough people convince their representatives in Congress to push their leadership to do it. The vote is likely to come next Wednesday, so you must call your representatives today to make a difference.
One of the best ways to contact your Member of the House and Senate is by using the National Association of Community Health Centers call in action line at 866-456-3949. If you don’t know who your Congressperson or Senator is, they can tell you, and connect to their office. They can provide you with information, or answer questions you may have. But we need you to make that call today to make a difference.
Care for the Homeless will be represented next Tuesday at the community health center advocacy rally in Washington trying to get Congress to act. Your call, today, is even more important.
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