North End Waterfront Health is participating in a national petition drive organized by the National Association of Community Health Centers calling on Congress and the President to oppose Medicaid Cuts and increase funding to health centers.
Health Centers like NEW Health are currently the family doctor and health care home for nearly 23 million people in nearly 8,000 medically-underserved communities across the country. Yet, there are still 60 million people, including many with insurance who still do not have access to a regular source of health care.
What’s more, 37% of all health center patients—some 8.5 million people—are covered by Medicaid. Health centers treat 14% of all Medicaid patients and they do it for only 1% of total Medicaid spending.
America’s Health Centers’ system of community-based health care homes has had a remarkable record of success over more than 45 years in providing quality health care and saving the entire health care system money. NEW Health has been serving local patients for 41 years and is a vital component of helping to solve the health care crisis in the United States.
Therefore, health centers across the country are calling on Congress and the President to:
1) Oppose cuts in the Medicaid program including efforts to reduce or eliminate fair payment protections for Health Centers;
2) Increase Health Centers’ funding by $200 million in fiscal year 2012, toward the goal of allowing health centers to serve 40 million Americans by 2015.
“We are asking patients, employees, and community members to support all of the great work health centers like ours do by signing the petition,” says NEW Health CEO Jim Luisi. “As a non-profit organization, the cuts that Congress is suggesting would have a negative impact on funding for the high-quality services we provide.”
If you would like to sign the petition, please ask any NEW Health staff member. You can also sign online at www.saveourchcs.org.
