Health Centers
In 2002, President Bush announced the Health Center Initiative, which plans to increase the number of health centers and increase primary health care access to more Americans. The initiative is a five-year plan to increase health center funding by $2.2 billion through fiscal year 2006. It also proposes to build 1,200 new health center sites to accommodate an additional 6.1 million patients. This additional funding will be awarded on a competitive basis through Federal health center grants, which are limited to operating expenses only. States that contribute state resources, particularly capital construction funds, are better situated to compete for the grants.
Community health centers provide primary and preventive services to residents who live in medically under-served neighborhoods across the country. For the uninsured - at last count, there were 81.8 million Americans between 2002 and 2003- health centers, with subsidized or free services, are sometimes their only option for receiving medical care. Community health centers were first funded by the federal government in the mid-1960's as part of the War on Poverty.
Funding for health centers comes from a variety of public and private sources. According to the National Association of Community Health Centers, health centers receive half of their funds from state and local sources, such as Medicaid (35.8 percent), state and local funds (12 percent) and to a small extent, the children's health insurance program (three percent). The remainder comes from federal grants, which make up approximately 26 percent of total funds, followed by private insurance (14.8 percent), Medicare (7.2 percent) and patients themselves (2.8 percent).
Health Centers Resources |
