As lawmakers face another deadline this week for passing legislation to keep the federal government open, one of the outstanding issues is long-term funding for a key health care safety-net program.
The Community Health Center program serves 27 million people at almost 10,000 nonprofit clinics nationwide, almost all of which are in low-income rural and urban areas.
Congress has allocated $3.6 billion annually to the health centers in recent years. That represents about 20 percent of the centers’ budgets—much of the rest comes in reimbursements for services. The money, say health center advocates and directors, is critical to providing services not always covered by Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance, including mental health and substance abuse care, transportation and in-home visits.
[For more on this story by Steven Findlay, go to https://khn.org/news/community...litical-dysfunction/]
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