Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday brought together leaders of community health centers from across Vermont where three new centers opening in January are part of a dramatic expansion of affordable primary care. A Sanders provision in the Affordable Care Act authorized $11 billion to build, expand, and operate community health centers throughout the United States. “This is a huge step forward,” said Sanders, chairman of a Senate subcommittee that oversees primary health care.

Sanders was joined at the news conference by representatives of the Battenkill Valley Health Center in Arlington, Vt., the Five Town Health Alliance in Bristol, Vt., and the Gifford Medical Center in Randolph, Vt. The Bennington, Addison and Orange county centers will become the newest in the state thanks to $2.4 million in federal funding released last month.

The eight current Federally Qualified Health Centers already provide primary and dental care along with mental health counseling and low-cost prescription drugs to more than 130,000 patients.

The three new centers will bring the total number of Vermonters served to about 163,000, more than one in four people in the state and one of the highest participation rates in the country. In addition, about 25,000 Vermonters now receive dental care at community health centers, a number which will also rise.