RECENT
EVENTS
8th Annual Community Health Center Day at the State House
The Great Hall, Massachusetts State House, Boston
February 20, 2003
Grassroots call: health centers raise the voices of
their communities participate in education day
at the state house, national uninsured
campaign
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 The League donated over 1000 digital thermometers to health centers that held health fairs on March 12th for cover the uninsured week. |
Representatives from more than twenty-five community-based health organizations traveled through the aftermath of a late February blizzard to the State House to promote the important role of community health centers in difficult fiscal times. Two weeks later, nineteen Massachusetts health centers joined with other community-based health providers from across the country to help raise awareness about the more than forty-one million Americans who lack health coverage. What is it that has health centers so worked up? So far in this fiscal year, community health centers have been subject to $14.3 million in direct cuts, including $7 million in aid to financially distressed health centers. In addition, $25.4 million has been slashed in other public health accounts from which health centers receive a majority of funding. On top of all that, new data shows a dramatic boost in the number of the state’s uninsured over the past year. In other words, health centers are seeing more patients and less funding. “Community health centers are the foundation of the primary care safety net, caring for thousands of uninsured patients across the state,” said James E. Luisi, chair of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers. “As more and more people find themselves without health coverage, they will turn to the state’s community health centers for their care. The question is, how can we continue to be that safety net when we’re fraying at the edges?” |
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Luisi explained that his anxiety over the fragility of the state’s health care safety net drove his decision to participate both in the League’s annual State House Outreach and Information Day and the recent Robert Wood Johnson (RWJ) Foundation’s “Cover The Uninsured Week” activities. RWJ, along with 15 other partner groups, organized a national campaign to focus attention on the plight of the nation’s 41 million uninsured. In Massachusetts it is estimated that 500,000 people lack health insurance, 270,000 of whom receive care through their local community health center. Of added concern is the April 1, 2003 elimination of MassHealth Basic, a state Medicaid program that covers 50,000 adults, 17,000 of whom are patients at health centers. Committed to a mission to provide care to any individual -- regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay - health centers will continue to serve these patients with fewer resources. In addition, health centers will care for a new influx of uninsured patients as a result of the program cut, placing unprecedented pressure on the state’s 49 community-based providers of health care to low-income Medicaid patients and the uninsured. |
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“Despite the strain, health centers are open for business,” said James W. Hunt, Jr., president and CEO of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers. “The last thing we want to see happen is people resorting to an emergency room as a health plan for their families.” However, without coverage some patients may be forced to defer their care and risk greater injury or seek care through more expensive hospital emergency departments. “Any savings the state realizes in the short run will be obliterated in the long run. It only follows that sicker people need more care. Why would we risk either outcome?” Increasingly health centers have been praised as cost-effective models for providing care to high-cost low-income patients. Through preventive health care models that emphasize health promotion, screening and care management, health centers are able to minimize emergency room visits and preventable hospitalizations among their patients. Recognizing both the quality of care and savings generated by community-based providers, President Bush has made doubling the number of health centers across the country a cornerstone of his national health policy agenda. Nineteen Massachusetts health centers organized health fairs focused on screening patients for state-sponsored health insurance programs on March 12: Bowdoin Street Health Center, Brookside Community Health Center, Codman Square Health Center, Dimock Community Health Center, Dorchester House Multi-Service Center, Family Health Center of Worcester, Fenway Community Health Center, Great Brook Valley Health Center, HealthFirst Family Care Center, Joseph M. Smith Community Health Center, Manet Community Health Center, Neponset Health Center, North End Community Health Center, Mattapan Community Health Center, Roxbury Comprehensive Community Health Center, South Cove Community Health Center, Upham’s Corner Health Center, Windsor Street Health Center and Whittier Street Health Center. Community health centers are non-profit, community-based organizations that offer comprehensive primary and preventive health care to anyone in need regardless of their medical status, ability to pay, culture or ethnicity. Led by boards of directors chosen from within their communities, health centers strive to meet the specific health needs of the people they serve. Currently, 49 community health centers provide services at 145 sites throughout Massachusetts. In 2002, Massachusetts health centers provided 3 million visits to one out of ten people in the Commonwealth.
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 Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers staff |
 MACH session State House Day |
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| For other Recent Events, click here. | |
For
details on 2005's State House Day, click here.
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