These new dollars are significant, because they will help those who have been left behind for far too long.

Community health centers, or Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), were created under federal law more than 50 years ago, out of the civil rights movement, when our nation’s leaders realized we were not doing enough to provide quality, affordable health care coverage to our low-income and minority communities.

Today, nearly 60% of our members’ patients receive Medicaid coverage, 20% have no health insurance coverage, and nearly 70% are minorities. Each year, Illinoisans see a nearly $2 billion return on investment from community health centers in the form of improved health care outcomes for our 1.4 million patients and reduced health care costs by preventing the need for care in more expensive settings.

The coronavirus pandemic underscored the need for our role. The virus spread in greater-than-expected ways in African-American and Latino communities, with devastating consequences. African-Americans represented nearly one-third of all COVID-19 related deaths, yet they make up just 15% of our state’s population. And, the infection rates in the Latino community were staggeringly high, far above the rates for other populations. The investments made in this state budget will help ensure we avoid a repeat.

Our centers also played a key role in fighting the spread of the virus by partnering with the Pritzker administration to test more than 160,000 Illinoisans, through more than 125 drive-thru, walk-up and mobile stations in just a few weeks.