Sen. Bernie Sanders toured community health centers in rural Vermont Monday with a senior Obama administration health care official to put on display “health care that works.”  On the heels of two overflow town meetings this weekend in Vermont, the senator and Mary Wakefield, administrator of the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, discussed health care reform legislation and the role of community health centers in providing primary care. Legislation approved by the health committee and making its way through Congress includes a provision championed by Sanders to provide major new funding to quadruple the number of the community health centers nationwide. They visited The Health Center in Plainfield, the Hardwick Dental Clinic, and the Hardwick Area Health Center. In Vermont, there were only two Federally Qualified Health Centers six years ago. Now there are eight.  

Sixty million Americans still lack meaningful access to primary health care, dental care, mental health counseling and low-cost prescription drugs. By increasing funding to less than 0.5 percent of overall U.S. spending on medical care, we could provide primary health care to every American who needs it.

The health center program was established four decades ago by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), chairman of the health committee.  It has enjoyed strong bi-partisan support from both Presidents Bush and Obama.  It is a highly efficient and highly effective program that provides affordable primary medical care, dental services, mental health counseling and low-cost prescription drugs.  

To read an opinion piece by The New York Times' Bob Herbert on the success of Vermont community health centers, click here. 

To watch video from Sanders' town meetings, click here.

To see pictures of the town meetings, click here.

To read a bio for Mary Wakefield, click here.