Community Health Centers share their milestone 60th anniversary with the Medicaid program, signed into law by President Lyndon Baines Johnson on July 30, 1965. Intended from the start to be complementary programs to provide both coverage and meaningful health care access to low-income, high need communities, the relationship between community health centers and Medicaid has evolved over the decades.
Writing in Health Affairs Forefront, Sara Rosenbaum and Feygele Jacobs discuss the evolution and interdependence of community health centers (CHCs) and Medicaid. The expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act stimulated the impressive growth of CHCs, which today serve more than 31 million people at over 15,600 locations, while CHCs themselves propelled the expansion of primary care for Medicaid enrollees. Together the two programs have dramatically expanded access to comprehensive high-quality care in vulnerable and diverse urban and rural communities. The OBBBA poses great risk to both Medicaid and CHCs; weathering the storm will require their continued collaboration.
Read, How Medicaid Built Community Health Centers And Health Centers Returned The Favor
New Data Note: Health Center Care for Homeless Patients at Risk
Community health centers are essential providers for the nation’s underserved, low-income and vulnerable populations, including homeless people. Virtually all CHCs serve patients experiencing homelessness or those who are housing insecure. People served by CHCs are disproportionately likely to have experienced homelessness, and in 2023, nearly 5 percent of all CHC patients, or 1.4 million people, had been homeless sometime that year.
Utilizing data from HRSA’s 2022 Health Center Patient Survey, our new data note examines the health care needs of community health center patients experiencing homelessness and considers the implications of federal Medicaid funding cuts.