Congress Passes Funding Agreement for NHSC!

"With the successful passage of the Continuing Resolution (CR), we are very grateful for your work securing a two year extension to the National Health Service Corps (NHSC), Community Health Centers, and the Teaching Health Centers programs, and the five year reauthorization of the Maternal, Infant, and Early childhood Home Visiting Program.

This action proves that your work has made a difference, and you can be sure that ACU will continue to work to strengthen the NHSC into the future. While we support and applaud Congress for their bipartisan effort on this spending deal, we recognize that significant disparities continue to exist in healthcare access across the country. For example, even though last year more than 10,000 National Health Service Corps members served 10 million people in every state and territory, it would still take an additional 27,000 providers just to meet the existing shortages. Furthermore, the annual budget for the NHSC as it stands is an amount sufficient to fund less than 40% of the applicants willing to serve in areas of provider shortages.

The NHSC has a 40 year track record of success and we applaud Congress for its action to ensure that this crucial program can continue into the future. ACU will continue to seek out additional opportunities to strengthen the National Health Service Corps even further and to continue to improve the health of millions of Americans nationwide.'

Source: Association of Clinicians for the Underserved (ACU).