Letter to the Hon. Roy Blunt, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Labor-HHS-Education and the Hon. Patty Murray, Ranking Member on the Subcommittee on Labor-HHS-Education - Wicker, Stabenow Lead Bipartisan Push for Community Health Center Funding to Help American Families
Letter
Dear Chairman Blunt and Ranking Member Murray:
We write to express our support for additional emergency funding for community health centers in the next
COVID-19 relief package. Community health centers are vital to our response to the coronavirus pandemic and
need appropriate funding to continue their front-line health care work.
Community health centers provide affordable care to more than 29 million patients, including 385,000 veterans and
8.7 million children nationwide. These centers play a critical role in responding to the pandemic, offering
coronavirus testing, primary care, dental care, behavioral health care, and other services to our nation's most
vulnerable patients. This care helps keep individuals out of emergency rooms, where beds are currently in
particularly high need. It also helps manage chronic conditions that may exacerbate the symptoms of COVID-19.
Over the next six months, community health centers will see 34 million fewer appointments as Americans cancel
primary and preventive care appointments or delay non-essential care. Health centers are anticipating $7.6 billion
in lost revenue and 105,000 lost jobs. Over 2,000 centers have already had to close their doors and many more
remain concerned about how long they will be able to stay open.
We appreciate the additional $2 billion in emergency funding provided to community health centers in recent
COVID-19 response and relief packages, including $600 million dedicated to testing. However, despite this
funding, health centers are still worried about how to keep their doors open to serve their patients. These valuable
providers will continue to lose more revenue as the pandemic continues. Additional funding is critical for these
centers to continue providing quality, affordable health care and front-line response efforts.
We look forward to working with you to reach a bipartisan agreement to enact legislation and ensure community
health centers can continue to provide high quality and affordable care to those in need.
Source