There is a crisis in primary care in this country.  Sixty million Americans lack meaningful access to primary health care, dental care, mental health counseling and low-cost prescription drugs.  Sen. Bernie Sanders has worked to confront this crisis through increased support for the highly-effective and highly-efficient federally qualified health center program, run by the communities they serve.  Yet, many rural and under-served urban areas still rely on nonqualified clinics that struggle to stay afloat, and provide health care that is are desperately needed by their communities.  The New York Times reported Wednesday on a small non-profit clinic in Milwaukee which struggles daily to keep its doors open but would leave people with far too few primary care options if it were to collapse.  In Vermont, the Rutland Free Clinic recently came to the brink of closure.  Sen. Sanders worked with other local primary care providers – including the local hospital and the community health center – to help find resources to keep the clinic open.  “I’m well aware there are people trying to do the right thing,” Sanders told the Times, “and to let these clinics fall by the wayside would be a mistake.”

Sen. Sanders “has led the effort to expand community health centers,” according to the New York Times.  At Sanders’ urging, the economic stimulus plan invested an extra $2 billion in community health centers.  Also, health reform 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. 

To read the New York Times article, click here.

To read the Rutland Herald article, click here.