As part of $11 billion dollars promised to be allocated nationwide by the Obama administration over the next five years, $28 million of it has been released and will be used in 23 select states and Puerto Rico to centers that will outreach to about 286,000 patients sources say. Such healthcare centers serve 19.5 million patients overall, about 40% of whom have no health insurance.

In October 2010, the Obama administration allocated the first $727 million to help fix up community health centers across the country. The money was to go to 143 centers.

Community health centers suffered a blow earlier this year when Congress slashed their funding 27.5 percent as part of the budget deal. Taking this into account, 2011 fiscal year funding surpasses last year’s, running up to $2.5 billion, said Health Resources and Services (HHS) administrator Mary Wakefield.

Of that, about $1 billion comes from the healthcare overhaul funding and another $1.5 billion from regular appropriations, she said. The HHS received 810 applications for the grants announced on Tuesday. Of the 67 winners, 10 applicants plan to establish new community centers, while others plan to add new service sites to existing centers.

Speaking of the importance of the centers, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius commented:

“They are providing care that is good or better than the rest of the healthcare system, while keeping down the costs.”

The centers often include clinics in rural and urban areas and treat people who live far from hospitals, as well as poor people, who pay varying fees depending on how much money they make. Ethnic and minority groups make up almost two-thirds of the centers’ patients.

The centers play a big role in public health by taking stress off emergency rooms in big state-funded hospitals that many people see as a last resort for the uninsured. They save the national health care system $24 billion a year by helping patients avoid emergency rooms and making better use of preventive services.

Spread across 50 states and all U.S. territories, there are 1,250 Community Health Centers that provide vital primary care to 20 million Americans with limited financial resources.

Directed by boards with majority consumer membership, health centers focus on meeting the basic health care needs of their individual communities. Health centers maintain an open-door policy, providing treatment regardless of an individual’s income or insurance coverage.

Health centers serve the homeless, residents of public housing, migrant farm workers and others with emergent and chronic health care needs, but limited resources to secure treatment through traditional channels.

Health centers provide substantial benefits to their communities by serving 20% of low-income, uninsured people while giving comprehensive care, including physical, mental and dental care Seventy percent of their patients live in poverty.

The need to reform the U.S. health care system has been embraced by almost every component of society. Growing numbers of people are uninsured or they have insurance but little or no access to basic health care services. The toll of unmet health care needs is incalculable. For over forty years health centers have broken many barriers to health care in America’s poorest communities, while also customizing their services to meet the needs of the communities they serve.

Written by Sy Kraft