Memo: Primary Care for All - Expand Public and Nonprofit Community Health Centers
By Sanjay Kishore and Micah Johnson
Executive Summary
Access to basic medical care must be a right for all Americans, especially in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. To guarantee this, we need a stronger infrastructure for care: more investment in high-quality, public health care services. Federally-qualified health centers (FQHCs) are public primary care clinics that serve those in need, create jobs, have bipartisan appeal, and are consistently popular with voters.
We propose dramatically expanding the FQHC program to build new clinics in every primary care shortage area, double federal funding for existing clinics, and support an additional 50,000 clinicians across the country who will care for 50 million Americans who currently lack reliable access to primary care.
This expansion builds on the Biden-Harris Administration’s “American Rescue Plan,” which supports vaccine distribution in FQHCs and develops a public health job corps of 100,000 workers. Our proposal will require an investment of $150 billion over five years, including a $30 billion capital expenditure fund and COVID-era stabilization funds for existing clinics.
There is strong public support for expanding FQHCs. Data for Progress conducted a poll of this proposal among 1,124 likely voters between January 29 and February 1, 2021, and found that 56% of all respondents supported this proposal compared to 35% who opposed. The proposal has majority support among both Democrats (75%) and voters who self-identify as Independents (55%).
Rates of support were stable even when the question was asked with explicit partisan framing.
