Even as more Americans have health insurance coverage these days, a serious healthcare problem persists nationwide: a shortage of places to go to get the primary and preventive care services that everyone needs.

A key part of the solution lies in our nation’s community health centers, which have provided quality, affordable care for the past five decades, and are increasingly becoming the go-to medical home for growing numbers of working Americans.

What began as a modest demonstration program in the mid-1960s has evolved 50 years later into the largest and most successful primary care system in the country. Since their inception, health centers have demonstrated impressive results in reducing infant mortality, improving immunizations rates, developing programs for early screening and treatment of cancer, and managing chronic conditions such as obesity and diabetes.

Today, health centers serve more than 23 million Americans, including about 7 million children and 260,000 veterans in more than 9,200 communities across the country.

Why does the demand for health center services continue to grow?  One reason is that they are good at what they do.  The care health centers provide is as good or even better that what one finds in a private physician practice. Health center patients report satisfaction levels of nearly 100 percent. Also, health center services are conveniently offered under one roof and may include dental, pharmacy, mental health and substance abuse counseling, vision, pediatric, geriatric, OB-GYN, and much more.

There are health centers like ours across the country which save the U.S. healthcare system more than $24 billion every year in reduced overall costs from preventable hospitalizations and avoidable emergency room visits — a figure that dwarfs the federal investments made in their operations. Sustained public investment is critical.

Without it, millions of patients could lose access to care and trigger a backlash of increased healthcare costs at a time when 62 million people across the country are already struggling with little or no access to affordable healthcare.

Health centers averted a massive cut to their funding earlier this year thanks to action by members of Congress.

We are grateful to Senators Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters who, along with Congressman Fred Upton, supported continued federal funding of the health center program. Without their leadership, hundreds of families in our community would have lost access to affordable healthcare at Cassopolis Family Clinic Network.

We are grateful for their support and are using National Health Center Week 2015 (Aug. 9-15) to thank them for their vote. Because of their efforts, health centers can continue to serve people and communities in need.

 

Mary Geegan Middleton is the chief executive officer of the Cassopolis Family Clinic.