UPDATED (1/20/2020)_: The World Health Organization has declared the coronavirus outbreak in China a public health emergency of international concern. NACHC is closely monitoring developments and reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) related to the outbreak of respiratory illness caused by a novel (new) coronavirus (termed “2019-nCoV”) that was first detected …
Reflections on Martin Luther King’s Legacy
The Community Health Center Movement stands on the shoulders of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and its leaders whose dreams ignited many different kinds of social change. Civil Rights leaders like Rosa Parks, U.S. Rep. John Lewis, Dorothy Height, Jo Ann Robinson, the friend we lost – U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, and The …
A Miracle in Missouri
In the “Show Me State” of Missouri, a Community Health Center in the city of St. Joseph showed everyone just how to pull off a miracle. With just $42,000 in their budget, and more than just a few skeptics who said there wasn’t enough money or time, the determined staff at Northwest Health Services opened a …
Celebrating Nurses in 2020
When people ask me what my days were like as a Community Health Center nurse, I don’t have a short answer. Health center nurses often find themselves directly engaged in patient care — triaging, administering medications and immunizations and treating wounds, but also navigating patients via phone, calling pharmacies to troubleshoot medications, attending meetings, and …
More Children are Uninsured
The fresh start of a new decade brings renewed interest in the growing numbers of uninsured children in our nation. Four million children are now uninsured, an increase of than 400,000 between 2016 and 2018, according to the U.S. Census. The new numbers point to a new downward trend after a trajectory of coverage among …
2019: Leaving Us Certain about Uncertainty
We turn the page on 2019 and plunge ahead to 2020 with a lot of unfinished work. A key task left unfinished as we approach a new decade is long-term and stable funding for Community Health Centers, now operating under a temporary measure through May 22nd. Even so, health centers are no less supported; indeed, …
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Rules in Texas v. Azar
NACHC staffers Susan Sumrell and Bethany Hamilton contributed to this blog post. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Rules in Texas v. Azar, but what does it mean? On December 18, 2019, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in a 2-1 decision that the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) mandate …
It’s National Rural Health Day
There are still plenty of places in the U.S. where it’s easier to purchase a round bale of hay than health care. Approximately 20 percent of the U.S. population—about 60 million people—live in rural areas, which make up 97 percent of the land area in the United States, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration. That’s …
Faces of the Movement: From Health Center Patient to Health Center Physician
When Toni Zink declared that God told her she was going to be a doctor one day her mother had every reason to be skeptical. Her daughter was only 4 years old. But then again, Toni Zink was a determined young lady who never let something as inconsequential as youth get in the way of …
A Boston Health Center is a Pillar of Support for Veterans
Since Harvard Street Neighborhood Health Center (HSNHC) first opened its doors in 1969 it has been an invaluable source of primary care for residents of some of the poorest communities in Boston — Mattapan, Dorchester, Roxbury, and the South End area. It has also become a pillar of support for veterans by providing services close …