U.S. sends $727 million to community health centers

[Pirate Smile]

Source: Reuters

Money will go to clinics in 40 states that provide care even to those who cannot pay

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Friday announced $727 million will go to help fix up community health centers across the country, the first of $11 billion for the centers promised by the U.S. healthcare reform law. The money will go to 143 community health centers — which provide services regardless of patients' ability to pay — in about 40 states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico, the Health and Human Services department said.

Healthcare reforms signed into law by President Barack Obama in March call for $11 billion in funding over the next five years for the centers, which HHS said currently serve nearly 19 million patients, about 40 percent of whom are uninsured. Expanding the centers will allow nearly twice as many patients to get care at them, it said.

"Many of these community health centers need more modern space to meet the increasing patient demand for services," Mary Wakefield, who heads HHS' Health Resources and Services Administration, said in a statement.

HHS said the centers "deliver preventive and primary care services at more than 7,900 service delivery sites around the country to patients regardless of their ability to pay; charges for services are set according to income."
Under the healthcare law, about 32 million Americans who do not have health insurance eventually are expected to be covered. But several reports predict these newly insured patients will swamp already overwhelmed primary care doctors, specialists and clinics.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39581117/ns/health-health_care

[defendandprotect]

1. Great news ... but it's simply more evidence of the need for MEDICAE FOR ALL ...!!!

[Pirate Smile]

Why don't we try to protect what we did get because the Republicans are promising to take it away.

They wont be offering Medicare for all in return. They would like to add a $2,000 deductible or vouchers or find it unconstitutional or any of the other insane things they are out spouting.

[defendandprotect]

12. IMO, we'll all be "holding our noses and voting for Dems" .... but that isn't an

excuse for ignoring the damage Obama has done re our best opportunity yet

for MEDICARE FOR ALL --

or the corporate influence on Obama and Baucus -- and the heavy $$ sponsorship of

those two by the health care industry -- nor the back room deals with the health

care industry/pharma.

The enemy is corporatism/fascism -- the object is to move to the left --

Let's simply blast our way thru the Democratic Party and knock out as many Repugs

as we can -- but we also have to target and deal with our own corporate-sponsored

Democrats!!

[Pirate Smile]

5. Whoops - dupe

[1776Forever]

9. +1 Baby! Right on! n/t

[inna]

2. nice gesture, but what we need is universal healthcare, like the rest of the civilized world

[Pirate Smile]

4. Well, this is what we are getting and we have a rabid opposition doing everything they can to take

this away.

[inna]

6. no, that is NOT "what we are getting".

[defendandprotect]

13. You really have to 'move on' from fear-based thinking and comment ....

FEAR is not what is keeping our legislators from doing the right thing re

MEDICARE FOR ALL -- it's $$$ from corporations -- pre-bribery and pre-ownership of

our candidates and elected officials!!

[thelordofhell]

3. This just in----Insurance Companies To Raise Premiums

Malpractice insurance rates to raise to $727 million to 143 community health centers. "We have to make sure they are covered properly." says insurance company representative Richard Cheney IV.

[sandnsea]

7. Thanks for trying to deliver good news

It's just not welcome around here anymore. *sigh*

[Pirate Smile]

10. I know. It's unbelievable.

[LuvNewcastle]

8. This is great!

I've depended on a community health center for a long time, and I look forward to the time when there are more of them and they are better funded. If it weren't for federal money, I'm sure that my state would have shut these clinics down a long time ago. And if I'm not mistaken, we have Bernie Sanders to thank for the funding of these centers.

[DeeOwl]

11. Useless spending.

As someone who has never had health insurance or coverage of any kind in my life, I had to rely on "free" clinics and community health centers in time of need as I posted about it earlier this year. They are not free, since they pretty much all operate on "sliding scale fees" (more on that later) Oh yeah, I put quote marks around "free" because they aren't for those who think they are. These "clinics" are places of business just like your local Walmart and such. These places are usually partially funded and almost always sponsored by a larger local hospital who uses the said clinic/center for referrals (most of these places don't even have basic equipment like X-ray machines, but guess what, their sponsor hospital just few miles down the road has one and they will take an x-ray for a low, low price of $399.99). They also use these places for training their just-out-of-medical-school cadres.

Back to "free". These places aren't. Any of them. It is just a marketing tactic. (Heck, I thought it was the law or something until I was told otherwise.) Same applies to lawyers and others who advertise sliding scale fees and such. As soon as you mention that their "lower/scaled-down" fee is much higher then what is offered just down the road at normal rate at an actual hospital, all of the sudden they don't want your business. (Speaking from experience here.)