Once again, the importance of fixing the health center funding cliff has hit the presses.  First, in Washington State, we read the impassioned case that Teresita Batayola, CEO  of International Community Health Services, makes for preserving health center funding in her state.  She writes in today’s Bellevue Reporter:

“The majority of our patients are our state’s most marginalized: new immigrants, seniors, refugees, those with low incomes, limited-English speaking, the unemployed, and people who are uninsured and underinsured. We provide vital programs such as those targeting women with breast and cervical cancers; feeding and nutrition for infants and small children; community-based health education outreach; and language and interpretation programs that allow us to reach out to non- or limited-English speaking patients in their own language… Investing in community health centers and primary care has never been a partisan issue. President George W. Bush championed health center expansion. We remain hopeful that community health centers’ traditionally bipartisan support in Congress will translate into a fix to this funding cliff and allow us to continue serving Washington’s most vulnerable residents.”

We also like this letter to the editor in the Fayetteville Observer by Amanda Alexander,  who notes that “some 62 million people nationwide struggle with little or no access to a primary care provider. We are making progress at Stedman-Wade Health Services, Inc. DBA Wade Family Medical Center and Stedman Family Dental Center… Yet, even as demand for our services continues to grow, a critical source of funding that helps us meet that demand is set to expire if Congress doesn’t act.”

Stay tuned as we collect more letters and headlines about the health center funding cliff from across the country.