Washington, D.C. - Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS) has cosponsored a resolution proposing that the federal investment in community health centers, including those in Mississippi, be increased in order to double access to care over the next five years.

The "Resolution to Expand Access to Community Health Centers," or "REACH" Initiative, was announced by Senator Cochran and a bipartisan group of Senators at a news conference today on Capitol Hill.

Cochran said, "Typically in small towns and rural communities in our State these centers are the only source of primary health care for people who live in those areas. These are efficient providers of health care services and benefits, and we do need to make it a high priority in the Congress to work together in a bipartisan way to improve a source of health care services and benefits that have proven to be very effective."

Senator Cochran observed that Mississippi ‘pioneered' in the area of community health centers establishing the first rural health care center funded by the federal government in 1965 in Mound Bayou, Mississippi. He said, "It has been a wise investment, not only for that community, but it has been a role model for health centers throughout the country."

The "Reach" Initiative, which is championed by the Mississippi Primary Health Care Association, proposes doubling the funding for community health centers over the next five years in order to expand access to health care for the medically uninsured and underinsured people throughout our nation. This additional investment would allow six to ten million Americans to receive health care by 2005. The resolution would provide for a continuation of the funding increases that the centers have received over the last two funding cycles.

"I am happy to be a cosponsor, and I hope to see early passage of legislation to provide for an infusion of federal dollars to expand programs for community health centers throughout the country," Cochran said.