On June 21, the House approved, 424-3, a bill to reauthorize community health centers (H.R. 5573). The House Energy and Commerce Committee approved the bill on June 15 (see the Source, 06/17/06).
Sponsored by Chair Nathan Deal (R-GA), the bill would reauthorize community health centers at $1.963 billion in FY2007, $1.999 billion in FY2008, $2.015 billion in FY2009, and $2.041 billion in FY2010 and FY2011.
Rep. Deal said that the centers have been an “unprecedented success” and that “community health centers are an integral part of this country’s health care delivery system, providing quality health care services to people and communities that would otherwise not have access to such care.”
“Community health centers…ensure that individuals in low-income and medically underserved communities can receive checkups, screenings and early interventions, especially in a culturally sensitive environment. This is essential. It means that conditions can be diagnosed and treated before they unnecessarily progress, at which point they often require very expensive treatment and sometimes hospitalization,” said Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA).
