The National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) reaffirms our commitment to ensure that all people have unfettered access to health care. Our nation is struggling with unprecedented challenges — social injustice and an ongoing deadly pandemic that is disproportionately impacting people of color, LGBTQ people and other historically marginalized communities. Health centers have seen the effects of discrimination on our patients, neighbors and friends because of the color of their skin, ethnicity, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, income level or insurance status. Eliminating nondiscrimination protections in health care, such as those impacting transgender individuals, will also weaken efforts to safeguard public health by discouraging people from seeking care when it is most urgently needed. We cannot effectively prevent the spread of COVID-19 and address epidemics, such as HIV/AIDS and opioid use disorder, until and unless all Americans are protected from discrimination in health care.
As trusted stewards of communities for 55 years, health centers will continue to provide safe harbor for individuals from all walks of life to access a wide array of culturally competent health care services without discrimination.
##
Established in 1971, the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) serves as the national voice for America’s Health Centers and as an advocate for health care access for the medically underserved and uninsured.