{"id":506908,"date":"2010-04-02T19:00:56","date_gmt":"2010-04-02T23:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/firedoglake.com\/?p=76420"},"modified":"2010-04-02T19:00:56","modified_gmt":"2010-04-02T23:00:56","slug":"establishment-media-discovers-community-health-centers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/506908","title":{"rendered":"Establishment Media Discovers Community Health Centers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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President signs the health insurance reform bill, which includes funding for CHCs. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I first wrote about community health centers in the health care law in December<\/a>, and have subsequently written at least 20 other articles referring to them. I maintain that it was the best money in the entire bill, adding the capacity for millions of people to access what amounts to a universal care program of free or near-free primary care medicine. They can also be centers for innovation in how we provide and even finance medical care, with the use of bundled payments and “medical homes” concepts.<\/p>\n

Months and months later, the New York Times gets around to profiling<\/a> one of these centers, in Portland, Maine.<\/p>\n

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First through the door of the Portland Community Health Center on Thursday morning was a stick figure of a man, oblivious to the homemade signs and the White House advance team across the street. He had a bald eagle drawn on his sweatshirt, a street-hard weariness in his eyes, and a throbbing pain in his right hand.<\/p>\n

Sarah Andel, a nurse practitioner, knew this man, James Hierl: how he lived in a shelter; how his depression made eating seem futile. As she held his numbed hand, working to remove a painful wart with a blade, she coaxed and coddled him: You have to eat; you have to see your psychiatrist; and please, James, eat.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re going to come back in a week,\u201d Ms. Andel said, as her patient headed for the door, finger bandaged, cheeks concave, looking older than his 53 years. \u201cO.K., James?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Portland’s community health center is very new, having been established thanks to a stimulus grant last year. They provide care regardless of insurance or income, and patients pay a small fee on a sliding scale based on income ($3 per visit for someone making $10,000\/year, for example). The center serves immigrants and low-income Mainers who would otherwise cost the state much more in uncompensated care. And the center appears to be a friendly spot for people to get both mental and physical health needs met.<\/p>\n

With $11.5 billion in additional funding over the next five years, community health centers can play a major role in improving people’s daily lives, allowing them to be productive, even saving them from death. It’s an incredibly good, compassionate program and its importance should not be overlooked.<\/p>\n

\"Share <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President signs the health insurance reform bill, which includes funding for CHCs. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy) I first wrote about community health centers in the health care law in December, and have subsequently written at least 20 other articles referring to them. I maintain that it was the best money in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4406,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-506908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4406"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506908\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}