Community Health Center Funding

• Community Health Centers are nonprofit, patient-governed organizations that provide high-quality, comprehensive primary care, dental, behavioral health, and enabling services.

• Last year, Community Health Centers served 32.5 million patients in urban, suburban, rural, frontier, and island communities in every state and territory. This translates to 1 in 10 Americans across over 1,500 health centers at nearly 15,000 locations.

• Health centers provide care to 1 in 5 rural patients, 9.4 million children, 3.8 million seniors, 1 million agricultural workers & families, and nearly 420,000 veterans.

•  Working Americans need affordable primary care to prevent illness and stay healthy. Federal funding that allows millions of Americans to have access to health center services will run out by the end of the year.

Health Centers Save Billions and Contribute to Local Economies

• Health centers are focused on patients, not profits, but they are also good for the economy.

• The Congressional Budget Office recently found that health center funding leads to more cost-effective care and lower Medicaid and Medicare spending by reducing unnecessary procedures, hospital stays, and ER visits.

• Spending per Medicaid patient is 24% lower & per Medicare patient is 30% lower at health centers compared to other outpatient clinics. An economic analysis estimated the annual savings to the health system at $24 billion.

• Health centers are job creators, supporting over half a million jobs, generating more than $37 billion in labor income, and contributing nearly $85 billion to the U.S. economy. 

• Health centers care for nearly 10 million rural Americans who typically face challenges getting the primary care they need due to provider shortages, long travel distances, and hospital closures.

• Health centers are also major economic engines in rural areas, generating at least 129,000 rural health center jobs and sustaining local economies by generating $13.3 billion in spending.

• Health centers provide high-quality and affordable primary care services to the blue-collar workforce who power American industries.