March 8, 2024
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Alexandra Walker awalker@nachc.org
Bethesda, MD – Today, the Senate passed a bipartisan spending package providing Community Health Centers a much-needed funding boost for the first time in nearly a decade by a vote of 75 to 22. The measure, which cleared the House of Representatives earlier this week by a vote of 339 to 85, now heads to President Biden’s desk for signature. In addition to increasing funding prospectively to $4.4 billion annually for health centers, which serve 1 in 11 Americans as the nation’s largest primary care network, the spending bill also extends and increases key primary care workforce programs – the National Health Service Corps and the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education Program.
“We are grateful to the leadership in Congress for extending and increasing funding for health centers – the nation’s largest primary care system – and for making key investments in the National Health Service Corps and the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education program,” said Dr. Kyu Rhee, MD, MPP, President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC). “This funding comes at a critical time as health centers face significant challenges, including workforce shortages, substantial changes in Medicaid enrollment and threats to 340B, the low-cost prescription drug program. This federal investment will support greater access for health center patients in rural, urban, island, and frontier communities, and build the next generation of primary care clinicians and their teams. We look forward to working with both sides of the aisle to build on this extension at the end of the year.”
Investments in primary care save taxpayer dollars, according to findings from the Congressional Budget Office, which concluded that those nine months of health center funding reduces federal spending on public health insurance programs by more than $700 million dollars.
While the passage of Consolidated Appropriations, 2024, is a welcome relief for Community Health Centers, as this funding makes up approximately 70% of overall federal health center funding, NACHC will continue to focus on making sure the annual discretionary dollars that health centers also depend on are appropriated before expiring on March 22, 2024.
“We are grateful to the leadership in Congress for extending and increasing funding for health centers – the nation’s largest primary care system – and for making key investments in the National Health Service Corps and the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education program,” said Dr. Kyu Rhee, MD, MPP, President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC). “This funding comes at a critical time as health centers face significant challenges, including workforce shortages, substantial changes in Medicaid enrollment and threats to 340B, the low-cost prescription drug program.
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NACHC is the leading innovative change agent collaborating with affiliates and partners to advance Community Health Centers as the foundation of an equitable health care system free from disparities, and built on accessible, patient-governed, high-quality, integrated primary care.