Recognizing Montana's community health centers

This week marks National Health Center Week and there is no better way to recognize the work of Montana’s Community Health Centers than to tell the story of our patients.

Holly lives in the Flathead Valley with her husband and her mother. Five years ago, she was diagnosed with a lung disorder that began attacking her kidneys. Within six months she was in kidney failure and in need of a transplant. Holly had employer sponsored insurance coverage when she got sick, but she eventually lost her job because of her illness. Without insurance, she can’t get on the kidney transplant list, her best chance at living a normal life. Holly is only 35 years old.

“I am able to see a primary care doctor at the Flathead Community Health Center, but I still have to pay out of pocket to see a specialist. An appointment with the kidney specialist is $350. My kidney specialist has me on a payment plan and continues to see me, but I have thousands of dollars of medical debt.”

Holly is not alone. Montana’s 17 Community Health Centers serve more than 100,000 patients at more than 60 sites across the state with integrated primary care including, medical services, pharmacy services, dental services and mental health services. Health centers see every person who walks through the door, regardless of their ability to pay or their insurance status.

Despite Montana’s large gains in insurance coverage with the new Health Insurance Marketplace, like Holly, many Community Health Center patients remain uninsured, without access to specialists, waiting for coverage under Medicaid expansion.

Montana’s Community Health Centers are proud to have been part of the passage of the HELP Act, a hard-won bipartisan compromise that allows Montana to pursue a waiver to cover 70,000 Montanans living in the Medicaid coverage gap. And while the legislation was not perfect, it is a workable solution for the thousands of Montanans for whom doing nothing is simply not an option. Community Health Centers are counting on Washington to move swiftly in approving the waiver so that we can get people like Holly coverage as soon as possible.

Once our waiver is approved, Community Health Center will continue to play a vital role in ensuring access to primary care for Montanans. And for the Montanans who remain uninsured, and some will, health centers will be ready and able to continue to meet their primary care needs.

With humble beginnings as a modest demonstration program in the mid-1960s, community health centers have evolved over the past 50 years into the largest and most successful primary care system in the country. As we celebrate National Health Center Week, we are proud of our past and hopeful for the future.

70,000 of our neighbors and patients are on the brink of access to health insurance, many for the first time. Our patients, like Holly, who are in a holding pattern until they get insurance, will be able to see the specialists and get the care that they need. We look forward to continuing to serve our patients and communities for many decades to come.

— Bob Marsalli is executive director of Montana Primary Care Association and Maria Clemons is executive director of Northwest Community Health Center