Federally qualified health centers, most of which are in a category called community health centers, are vital health care infrastructure. They are non-profit community based organizations that receive federal support to provide primary care services in medically underserved areas, and to serve the uninsured and underinsured. Most of their income is from Medicaid and Medicare, and they charge on a sliding scale (going to zero) for people who are uninsured. They typically provide pre-natal care, may have dentistry and other specialty care, and substance abuse and mental health treatment.
Right now they are in crisis. The physicians who wrote the linked article work at Upham's Corner Community Health Center, which I am very familiar with from my time in Boston. It's in the "United Nations" community in Dorchester. Like all CHCs, Upham's Corner has been financially devastated by the Covid-19 pandemic. They were already in financially perilous circumstances. Congress cut off their subsidy funding for many months in 2017, and it is now scheduled to expire again in November. With the precipitous decline in visits during the pandemic, they have lost much of their revenue from health insurance and many have been forced to close. As Doctors Kishay and Hayden tell us:
Congress should adequately fund CHCs. We cannot rely on our private health system to care for Americans in crisis. Though the $1.3 billion provided by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act was a start, it amounts to less than 10% of CHCs’ normal annual revenue. The Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act, now under consideration, would provide $7.6 billion in emergency funding to CHCs to help clinics make up for revenue losses. Congress should also provide CHCs with $77 billion over 5 years, as requested by Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), reauthorizing the CHCF for this period, funding infrastructure for scaling up telehealth, and supporting critical workforce programs such as the National Health Service Corps and the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education program.
They are a bit too circumspect here. The problem is not "congress," it is the Senate. The good doctors have other good proposals, and they discuss the role and importance of CHCs in promoting a humane and effective health care system. Do read the article. But this is just one more in the long list of emergencies we face right now. Since Mitch McConnell won't act to save the nation, we need a new Senate majority.
1 comment:
We need a new Senate majority and a new executive. And a new Supreme Court composition.
It's amazing how five well-positioned creatures can hold 330,000,000 hostage in our current system.
I am totally in favor of a national referendum, or constitutional amendment--whatever words--to bar from office anyone with multiple sexual assault allegations, domestic abuse charges, a history of rage, or anyone who won't disclose their taxes from all previous years. In addition, they should have to submit to examination by a neutral panel of psychiatrists and psychologists to bar debilitating mental illness, such as narcissistic personality disorder or borderline personality disorder.
I realize we "all have our issues," but that kind of minimization is like saying, "Come on, we're all crazy ... me, you ... Charlie Manson ..."
It's matter of degree. There is no reason to bar recovering alcoholics or drug addicts--or recovering gambling/sex addicts, etc.--from office, provided they are subject to public scrutiny. There is no reason to keep on paying for one's problems IF the person is actively recovered/recovering.
But there are lines that, once crossed, cannot be uncrossed. No cures are currently available for debilitating mental illness. Addiction is another issue.
It's time not only for comprehensive immigration reform and healthcare for all, but to repeal the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. Time to stop the mass deportations for people who've already paid their dues. It is an unconstitutional form of double jeopardy.
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