Sen. Bernie Sanders: Health-care bill could spark "a revolution in primary health care"

Sen. Bernie Sanders: Health-care bill could spark "a revolution in primary health care"

Tell me a bit about the provisions to expand community health centers that you added into the Senate bill.

In most areas of Vermont right now, you can drive to a community health center near you where you’ll get excellent quality primary health care. If you have no health insurance, you’re charged on a sliding scale basis. If you have Medicare or Medicaid, they’re delighted to have you. And private health insurance, that’s great, too. We’ve gone from two community health centers in Vermont to eight. And those eight centers have 41 separate locations and are used by about 100,000 people – and that’s in a population a bit over 600,000. So we know they work.

As of this point, we have added $10 billion for the program in the Senate bill. Congressman Jim Clyburn has added $14 billion in the House bill. And my hope is the conference committee will go with the $14 billion. What we would do with $14 billion is expand access from the current 20 million people served by community health centers to 45 million people. It will mean establishing CHCs and their satellites in 10,000 new communities. What it also means is that we will dramatically increase funding for the National Health Service Corps so we have an additional 20,000 doctors, dentists and nurses. It’s a revolution in primary health care if we get what I hope we get.

Let’s focus on that for a second. One of the issues in the health-care system that hasn’t gotten enough attention is the focus on specialty medicine. Those doctors make more money, so more and more medical students are going in that direction, but they also cost a lot more money, as they create demand for expensive procedures. I’ve heard people say we can afford a universal primary-health-care system, but not a universal specialty-health-care system.


We need to expand the National Health Service Corps. If you go to the University of Vermont, you’re going to graduate with $150,000 in debt. So you become a specialist and make a lot of money and repay the debt. But we’re going to give the NHSC enough money to forgive the debt of 20,000 students to practice in underserved communities. The other thing we need to do is raise the reimbursement for primary-care doctors.

And these community health centers are sort of seen as a front line for access to primary care?

When we talk about health care, people tend to talk about insurance. But equally important is access. You need to be able to find a primary-care physician and a dentist and a mental-health counselor. The $14 billion will have a profound impact on addressing the crisis in primary care in this country. We’re not graduating enough primary-care doctors, and even people with insurance often can’t find one. But the insanity is that we’re not just depriving people of primary care they need, but we’re sending them to the emergency room. And the emergency room will treat you for the common cold and charge $600 to $1,000, and the community health center will cost $100. If we spend on community health centers, you actually save money.

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http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/12/sen_bernie_sanders_health_care.html

Basically, you're getting a lot of Primacare-style clinics that are managed by the government to some degree, but Big Insurance looks like it's still going to call many of the shots in these facilities.

Is the Kucinich amendment still in it?

More about National Association of Community Health Centers
http://www.nachc.com/
There is a LOT of info on the site from history, statistics, etc.

Find a local CHC: http://www.hrsa.gov/



December 19,2009
STATEMENT OF TOM VAN COVERDEN ON THE INTRODUCTION OF MAJORITY LEADER REID’S MANAGER’S AMENDMENT

America’s Community Health Centers appreciate the commitment and extraordinary work from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his leadership team to advance national health reform toward final Senate approval. Majority Leader Reid’s manager’s amendment, introduced today, incorporates several key provisions that will further strengthen the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act under consideration by the Senate. NACHC continues to support the Senate health reform bill, and the inclusion of the manager’s amendment will further improve access to affordable, quality health care for the newly insured and low-income, underserved individuals.

Health Centers particularly appreciate several provisions that will have a major impact on health centers across the country. Due to the extraordinary efforts of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the manager’s amendment includes a direct investment of $10 billion for health centers and the National Health Service Corps, including $1.5 billion for health center construction. This direct funding, a new and guaranteed stream over the next five years, will ensure that health centers are available to serve millions of additional patients in need.

The manager’s amendment also restores a provision that protects health center payments within the new Health Insurance Exchange, ensuring health centers are paid reliably and adequately for providing a health care home to millions of newly insured patients. Finally, the manager’s amendment improves health center payments in Medicare, eliminating caps and screens and updating the Medicare covered services to include preventive services – critically important as health centers’ Medicare population continues to grow.
more...http://www.nachc.com/pressrelease-detail.cfm?PressReleaseID=536