State economic and employment losses if community health center funding is not restored
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Series Title(s):
- Policy issue brief (Geiger Gibson / RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative)
- Author(s):
- Ku, Leighton, author Steinmetz, Erika, author
- Contributor(s):
- Geiger Gibson / RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative, issuing body. Geiger Gibson Program in Community Health Policy, issuing body. George Washington University, issuing body. Milken Institute School of Public Health, issuing body.
- Publication:
- [Washington, D.C.] : Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University, December 2017
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Community Health Centers Community Health Centers -- economics Community Health Services Community Health Services -- economics Employment -- statistics & numerical data Financing, Government -- economics Health Services Accessibility -- statistics & numerical data Health Workforce State Government Unemployment -- statistics & numerical data Humans United States
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- For the past several years, Congress has provided a dedicated stream of federal grant funding so that community health centers (CHCs) can deliver primary health services to patients in medically underserved areas across the nation. In 2016, health centers served 26 million patients at about 10,000 locations. However, while the federal fiscal year ended on September 30, 2017, the Community Health Center Fund, which was $3.6 billion in Fiscal Year 2017, has not yet been renewed by Congress, resulting in a deep funding gap. This “CHC funding cliff” might be addressed as part of a continuing resolution, in conjunction with renewed funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), the National Health Service Corps and the innovative Teaching Health Centers program.3 But even though an extension of funding passed the House, alongside other bipartisan health priorities, debate has not yet moved forward in the Senate. Thus, it remains unclear when--or if--the CHC funding will be renewed. Key Findings. This brief addresses the state-level economic and employment consequences if the mandatory community health center funding is not restored. Key findings include: (1) If $3.6 billion in funding is not immediately restored, CHCs would sustain substantial losses in revenue, severely reducing their capacity to provide health care to low-income patients. In addition, there would be broader and dramatic repercussions for state and local economies and health and non-health employment would decline. (2) The number of jobs lost in 2018 could range from 76,000 to 161,000 nationwide. State economies (gross state product) would be reduced by $7.4 to $15.6 billion. (3) Job losses will occur in both health care and non-health employment. There is a projected loss of 32,000 to 68,000 health care jobs, and 44,000 to 93,000 non-health jobs (e.g., in retail, construction, finance, and other industries.) (4) Because CHCs are located in every state in the U.S. (as well as in U.S. territories), economic and employment losses will occur in every state. Table 1 has more detail. (5) Our estimates are for 2018 only. If the mandatory health center funding is also lost in future years, the cumulative losses would be substantially higher. These estimates are based on economic models of changes in employment and state economies if federal CHC funding is reduced. The direct effect is the loss of revenue to health centers. CHCs are not-for-profit organizations, and operate at low margins; with sharp revenue losses, they are forced to downsize staff, curtail services and reduce purchasing of goods and services such as equipment, rent, consulting, supplies, etc. But the repercussions would extend well beyond CHCs and their patients; they would create losses for health care employment in other settings and to employment and business in non-health care settings.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (5 pages)).
- NLM Unique ID:
- 101735620 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101735620