Community health centers a saving grace

Community health centers

Researchers at the University of Chicago have said that community health centers could help fill gaps in the US healthcare system for very little money.

Their report, which was published in journal Health Affairs, was released as President Barack Obama proposed increased federal funding to the centers, which are set up to treat people without health insurance, and people who live far from hospitals or are too poor.

"Community health centers play a vital role in providing primary care and other services to those who cannot afford it or cannot access care. They are an investment that pays off for patients and the nation as a whole," Anthony LoSasso of the University of Illinois at Chicago, who led the study, said in a statement.

Lo Sasso's team said a $500,000 increase in funding for US centers would provide treatment for an extra 540 uninsured patients, Reuters reports.

Obama's proposed 2011 budget adds $290 million to expand a network of federally funded health centers.

"We're investing new funds in what I consider to be the backbone of the American healthcare system, community health centers," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters.

"Thanks to this investment, these neighborhood centers will provide high-quality primary care for 20 million people a year - three million more than were served in 2008."

Research

Obama's government gave community centers more than $2 billion under the 2009 stimulus program known officially as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Lo Sasso's team looked at data on such community centers from 1996 to 2006, studying all kinds of centers - whether funded by state or local government or through private foundations - and found an increase in services across the board, especially in treating mental conditions.

Each additional $1 million of federal grant support led to around eight more full-time employees, five of them medical care providers.

Every $1 million in state grants led to close to five full-time employees, with private grant dollars leading to nine new employees.

The researchers found that by 2001, such centers were providing $1.25 million worth of free care.

"We show that the investments made in federally qualified health centers during 1996-2006 clearly translated into an increase in services available to patients, including mental health and substance abuse treatment and counseling and staffing," the researchers wrote.

"Roughly 25 percent of the nation's 3.4 million low-income uninsured children receive care at such a center."

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