Community health centers are essential to keeping America healthy. Let me tell you why

Have you ever woken up suddenly ill and scheduled an appointment with your primary care doctor? Have you ever considered what it would be like to wake up and not know who to call for such care?

For too many Americans, access to health care is a luxury in today’s post-pandemic world.

For those living in poverty or rural and frontier communities across America where the nearest hospital or doctor is in another county, good health care is especially hard to find, even for people who have an insurance card. 

In fact, over 100 million Americans—nearly one-third of the nation—may not have access to a usual source of primary care due to a shortage of providers in their local community, according to a new study by the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC)

and Health Landscape at the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). 

The estimated number of Americans who are medically disenfranchised— at risk of lacking access to primary care due to an inadequate supply in their local community regardless of insurance — has nearly doubled since 2014. The insufficient number of primary care providers in the United States poses a serious public health threat, leaving nearly one-third of the population vulnerable to preventable chronic diseases and emerging threats like COVID-19 and influenza.

That is why Community Health Centers are essential. They meet people’s health care needs where they are, even if it means driving a mobile health unit into a neighborhood, a farm field, or to a homeless shelter. Across the country, health centers serve 18 million people living in poverty, 3.3 million seniors, 19 million people who are of a racial and/or minority background, 1.3 million people experiencing homelessness, and 6 million uninsured patients. In total, they serve 1 in every 11 Americans. And health centers will likely see an increase in uninsured patients seeking care when the federal public health emergency ends in April, dis-enrolling many Americans from state Medicaid plans.

In the almost 30 years in which I’ve been part of the community health space, I’ve seen firsthand how members of this collective make sacrifices for the health of the individuals we’ve sworn to serve.

This has been particularly true throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Health centers have been a critical player in combating COVID-19 in their communities. Providing care to nearly 30 million Americans across the nation, health centers have played a central role in protecting the people disproportionately affected by the disease. 

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, health centers have administered more than 23 million vaccines and conducted over 21 million tests. Over 70 percent of vaccines and 60 percent of tests administered by health centers have gone to patients of racial and ethnic minority backgrounds, who are at higher risk for severe COVID-19 illness.

Health centers not only have helped keep America’s workforce healthy with quality preventive care, but they also generate healthy economies, producing nearly $85 billion in economic activity and directly employing more than 250,000 people.

Along with these contributions, it’s important to note the sacrifices made by the frontline workers who serve those in need.

Inevitably, fighting a global pandemic in underserved communities has decimated the health center workforce. A workforce survey conducted by the National Association of Community Health Centers last year found that 100 percent of health centers surveyed reported losing staff within six months, with 68 percent of health centers losing 5-25 percent of their workforce. The most hard-hit category is nurses.

In the face of these compounding challenges, health centers have been working overtime to remain financially sustainable for the tens of millions of Americans who depend on their services daily.

While significant attention is paid to the federal dollars invested in health centers — and appropriately so — fewer Americans are aware that the Community Health Center program is a major contributor to keeping Americans healthy and a major saver of taxpayer dollars. 

Almost a quarter of the medically disenfranchised population are children. Access to primary care for children is critical, yet too many children are not receiving the care they need to grow up to be healthy and productive citizens. Many members of Congress are rightly focusing on access to quality care for children, and robust support for health centers remains a critical piece of that effort.

Only 1 in 10 of the medically disenfranchised population is uninsured, demonstrating that access to a usual primary care source requires more than insurance. Many people who have insurance are still unable to access primary care in their community due to a shortage of providers. Without health centers, 15 million more patients would be at risk of not having a usual source of primary care.

Health centers go beyond the scope of traditional health care providers. Rather than simply providing medical care, health centers also invest in solutions to infrastructure challenges that prevent people from receiving and accessing care. For example, health centers nationwide have

been providing individuals living in shared housing, or even shelters, resources to quarantine effectively — a challenge for even the most fortunate Americans. Many health centers are so integral in their communities that they provide food pantry services and have gardens on site to feed their communities.

Looking beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, we already know that the lessons learned by health centers providing services to those in need will be key to addressing future public health challenges. Our health care heroes need the resources to rebuild the health center workforce and continue serving those communities in every state that depend on us. Because of health centers’ importance to their communities, federal investment in this model has traditionally been a bipartisan goal in Congress — and we look forward to that tradition continuing.

For health center staff, it’s about dedication — not dollars. We have committed our lives to ensuring underserved communities have access to quality health care so we may build happier, healthier, and stronger communities throughout our country.

Ron Yee is the Chief Medical Officer for the National Association of Community Health Centers.