Elected officials across the country will join communities in celebrating National Health Center Week 2020 from August 9th through 15th. Their visits and messages to Community Health Centers will demonstrate that not only is it possible to move beyond the partisan divide over health care, but to support and agree on a program vital to our communities.
Health centers provide preventive and primary care services to 28 million Americans including over 230,000 Oklahomans. Without them, we cannot curb health care costs and protect communities from preventable diseases. Health centers provide care to people who disproportionately suffer from chronic disease and lack access to affordable, quality care. While our approach is community-based and local, collectively we generate a nationwide ripple effect. Health centers lower health care costs to the tune of 24 billion a year, reduce chronic diseases and stimulate local economies.
At FHCSO we provide medical, dental, and behavioral health services for a comprehensive approach to health care. Health centers are not just healers; we are innovators who look beyond medical charts to address the factors that may cause poor health, such as poverty, homelessness, substance use, mental illness, lack of nutrition, and unemployment. We collaborate and partner with hospitals, local and state governments, social, health and business organizations to improve health for people who are medically vulnerable. Community Health Centers focus not only on improving the health of individual patients, but on improving the health status of the entire community.
Continued support for the health center program will ensure we close the access gap for medically vulnerable communities. Accomplishing this task depends on our members of Congress and state lawmakers. I am grateful that our state legislators have shown leadership in supporting legislation that will help health centers increase access to care in underserved areas.
Show your support during National Health Center Week by visiting FHCSO. We look forward to seeing you.