BURLINGTON, Vt., Sept. 3 – Amid a major crisis in primary health care, the situation may become significantly worse unless Congress renews support for community health centers that care for 22 million Americans, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) warned today.
Sanders four years ago helped lead the effort to secure $12.5 billion in the Affordable Care Act to expand community health centers and to recruit more doctors, dentists, nurses and other primary health providers. The health centers provide affordable primary care, dental care, mental health counseling and low-cost prescription drugs for low- and middle-income Americans.
The expansion of funding for Federally Qualified Health Centers – along with increased funding to deploy more doctors dentists and other health care professionals to underserved parts of the country through the National Health Service Corps – was an important first step in addressing the crisis in primary care and the shortage of health providers. However, funding for those programs lapses on Oct. 1, 2015.
“Millions of Americans could lose access to community health centers. Members of Congress will need to work in a bipartisan way to extend funding if we are to continue to provide Americans with the greatest health care needs a reliable source of primary care,” Sanders said. “Without access to affordable primary care, people put off going to a doctor until they get so sick they end up in expensive hospital emergency rooms. In some cases they simply wait too long and their illness becomes terminal,” added Sanders.
The chairman of a Senate subcommittee on primary care, Sanders has introduced legislation to avert the funding cliff. His bill would authorize $25 billion over five years in new funding for health centers. Another $4.9 billion would be set aside from 2016 to 2020 for the National Health Service Corps to provide scholarships and loan repayments for health care professionals committed to practice in underserved areas. The measure also would increase the number of community health centers providing residency training through the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education program.
“At a time when we already are in the midst of a primary care crisis, we cannot wait until the last moment to act,” Sanders said of the three critical programs that lose funding at the end of the next fiscal year.
Contact: Michael Briggs (202) 224-5141
