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| Empowering our community health centers |
| During the 1960s, Ms. Helen Burgess and other
residents of Baltimore’s Murphy Homes decided that they needed to have more control
over the health care that their families received. With the help of Provident Hospital,
they created a community health center in a couple of rooms lent to them by St.
Katherine’s Episcopal Church. Soon, the center’s usefulness and popularity had grown to the point that Ms. Burgess and her neighbors were able to rent a larger space at Mondawmin. Today, aided by leaders like former Maryland State Senator Larry Young, their organization owns a modern health facility on Division Street called Total Health Care. “We picked every brick in this building,” Ms. Burgess declares with pride. “We chose every doctor and nurse who works here.” Community control was central to the 1989 legislation that created “federally qualified health centers” like Total Health Care. Helen Burgess is more than a Total Health Care patient. She and other neighborhood residents control its board of directors. Ms. Patricia Scott and her 7 year old daughter, Shanaisa, could not be more pleased with the care that they are receiving. “I needed to schedule Shanaisa’s appointments so that she would not have to miss school,” Ms. Scott told me. “Dr. Ethel Adoleye is concerned with the whole child, so she adjusted her schedule to what we needed.” Another patient, whom I will call Mr. Brown, did not anticipate the quality of care and respect that he would receive when he first came to Total Health Care. Like 40 million other Americans (and nearly one African-American in every five), Mr. Brown lacked health insurance. Nevertheless, Total Health Care is providing him with the care and prescription medicine he needs to control his blood pressure at a cost that he can afford. At federally qualified health centers, no one is denied health care because they lack insurance and cannot afford to pay. In Baltimore and other “medically underserved” communities across America, community health centers are advancing one of the most important human rights initiatives of our time. They are providing care to eleven million Americans, including 4.5 million children like Shanaisa Scott and 4.5 million uninsured patients like Mr. Brown. They are working to eliminate the unacceptable and immoral conditions in our health care system that have made being Black - or being poor - mortality factors. For example, community health centers have reduced infant low birth weight (a condition associated with increased mortality) in their African-American patients by 50 percent. They have significantly expanded the number of women receiving breast cancer examinations. Nearly 90 percent of their African-American patients report that their blood pressure is under control. These health statistics - and other documented successes - support Patricia Scott’s testimonial about the care that her daughter, Shanaisa, is receiving at Total Health Care. The public policy implications are clear. When communities control their own health care, the quality and extent of their care improve. In addition to Total Health Care, Baltimore is fortunate to have six other federally qualified health centers: Baltimore Medical Center, Chase Brexton Health Services, Health Care for the Homeless, Park West Medical Center, People’s Community Health Center, and South Baltimore Family Health Center. I am doing everything within my power in the Congress to increase the federal support that these essential community institutions receive. Lives are at stake. That is why the Congress should adopt and fund the REACH Initiative that would support the development of 1,200 new or expanded health centers over the next five years, allowing 6 million additional patients to be served. Congress also should enact two other essential proposals that I have cosponsored. The Health Care Safety Net Improvement Act (H.R. 3450), introduced by House Health Subcommittee Chairman Michael Bilirakis (R-FL) and Ranking Member Sherrod Brown (D-OH), would reauthorize the federal Health Centers program and the National Health Service Corps. The Medicare Safety Net Access Act (H.R. 4000), sponsored by Representatives Jerry Weller (R-IL) and John Lewis (D-GA), would expand the services available to Medicare patients in federally qualified community health centers by improving Medicare+Choice. In Washington, we would be wise to follow the example of Helen Burgess. She is a practical visionary whose dream of a clinic that would exist to serve her community became a reality. Nearly half a century after Ms. Burgess and her neighbors began to regain control of their own health, it is time for the rest of America to do the same. Affordable, high-quality health care is a fundamental human right. The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings represents Maryland’s Seventh Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives. He currently serves as First Vice-Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. |
| June Archives |