Sen. Casey urges Congress to fully fund community health centers

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., is pushing for full funding for community health centers.

Casey hosted a conference call with reporters Thursday to discuss funding for these centers, which are a “vital part of our health care system.”

They provide access to health care through education, rehabilitation, preventive services and direct care.

“This is a basic safety net for so many Americans across our country, and ... what Congress is doing right now is death by 1,000 cuts,” said Sister Mary Scullion, of Stephen Klein Wellness Center and Project HOME in Philadelphia, who was also on the call.

In Pennsylvania, more than 260 health centers serve about 800,000 people, Casey said. The health centers, which also employ thousands of Pennsylvanians, provide “critical services” in both rural and urban areas, often where there are limited options for primary care or clinics that provide preventative services.

The centers provide access to health care for low-income working people, homeless people and people who don’t have health insurance, Scullion said.

Mountaintop Area Medical Center, located in Snow Shoe Township, is Centre County’s only center, and it’s operated by Keystone Rural Health Consortia Inc. Additionally, there are seven centers in the surrounding counties.

Funding expired for both the Community Health Center Fund and the Children’s Health Insurance Program on Sept. 30.

CHIP was reauthorized for six more years on Monday as part of the spending bill that reopened the government after a weekend-long shutdown.

“Republicans in Congress pushed aside funding for community health centers, pushed aside funding for children’s health insurance and pushed aside a lot of important priorities because, guess what, they are obsessed with their tax cuts for rich people and big corporations,” Casey said.

He said it’s time for Republicans — the majority party in both the U.S. House and Senate — to get long-term funding in place by Feb. 8 (the spending bill that reopened the government only funds it through that date).

According to the National Association of Community Health Centers, the federal Health Center Program is funded through a mix of discretionary money passed by Congress through the regular appropriation process for each fiscal year and mandatory funding made available under the Community Health Center Fund (created in 2010 through the Affordable Care Act).

Initially, $11 billion was provided through the CHCF over five years for the operation, expansion and construction of health centers across the country, according to NACHC. In 2015, Congress extended the fund for two more years.

The discretionary money for fiscal years 2016 and 2017 was $1.5 billion, while the mandatory funding totaled $3.6 billion, Casey said.

“The discretionary portion, which has existed since 1996, is approved annually by Congress and was most recently extended as part of the recent continuing resolution that (U.S. Sen. Pat) Toomey supported,” according to a statement from the Pennsylvania Republican’s press office. “However, Obamacare shifted a significant amount of this funding to a mandatory program that requires periodic reauthorization, or as some commenters have called it, a ‘funding cliff.’

“In December, Congress passed legislation to provide $550 million in mandatory funding that is available through March 31, 2018. Our office is optimistic that a long-term reauthorization will be enacted so that there is not an interruption in this funding.”

That patch provides short-term relief, Casey said, but not long-term funding stability.

Health centers in the commonwealth have considered closing sites, laying off staff and reducing services as a result of the uncertainty, he said.

“We are continuing to widen, by huge portions, the economic disparities in this country,” Scullion said. “People can’t live. ... It’s really threatening the very fundamental basics of our democracy and of our society.”

This story was originally published January 25, 2018 at 5:45 PM with the headline "Sen. Casey urges Congress to fully fund community health centers."