A new HRSA report describes how primary health care providers supported by the Bureau of Primary Health Care improve the lives of the nearly 12 million people they treat each year.  These providers serve on the front line of the nation’s health care safety net, a system President Bush has pledged to expand dramatically.

Using personal stories, examples and background statistics, Changing Lives, Changing Communities Through Primary Care details the broad reach of BPHC-funded programs across the country and examines the high-quality, culturally competent health care these programs offer to people not treated by the greater health care system.

“Everyone deserves quality health care,” said Marilyn Hughes Gaston, M.D., associate administrator for primary health care.  “Our programs provide access to quality care for the poor, the isolated and the uninsured -- people who otherwise would receive no health care."

Most of the people served in the nation’s 4,000 health centers and National Health Service Corps sites are poor – 85 percent live below 200 percent of the poverty level and 4.5 million have no health insurance.  BPHC-funded programs ensure that everyone who needs care receives it, regardless of their ability to pay.

BPHC supports community-based health centers through its Community Health Center program, funded at $1.17 billion in fiscal year 2001.  Health center sites also rely on BPHC funds from programs that support migrant health, health care for the homeless, and primary health care for residents of public housing.  The bureau’s Healthy Schools, Healthy Communities program provides grants to school-based health centers.  And in communities with few medical professionals, more than 2,500 NHSC clinicians treat close to 2 million patients annually.

President Bush’s FY 2002 budget asks for an extra $124 million to build more health centers, the first step in his plan to double the number of patients served at health center sites.  Additionally, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson recently awarded $11.3 million in grants to 25 health centers to expand access to health care for some 200,000 individuals by creating new health care sites in medically underserved areas.  Two funding cycles later this year will bring the FY 2001 total to about 100 new health care sites capable of serving 1 million more Americans.

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