Closing the Access Gap: Securing Stable Funding for Community Health Centers

Community health centers are the largest primary care system in the country, and they exist to reach the people the rest of the system reaches worst. These centers can treat everyone who walks in, regardless of ability to pay, because two federal streams underwrite the care. Mandatory funding through the Community Health Center Fund is set to expire on 31 December 2026, and Congress has kept it alive only through several short-term extensions rather than a stable multi-year authorization. The expiration of enhanced Marketplace subsidies adds still more uninsured patients whose care the centers must absorb without payment.