Health center receives grant

BUCKSPORT – Health and Human Services secretary Tommy G. Thompson announced three grants totaling $652,663 to extend health services to residents of Maine.

Grants awarded were: $237,949 to the Maine Migrant Health Program in Augusta; $195,207 to the Bucksport Regional Health Center in Bucksport, and $219,507 to the Russell Medical Center in Leeds.

They are part of 66 grants totaling more than $19 million that will help heath centers from Maine to California expand capacity to serve 270,000 rural and inner-city Americans, including many without health insurance.

The three awards support President Bush’s five-year initiative to expand the health center system. Launched in 2002, the initiative will add 1,200 new and expanded health center sites and increase the number of patients served annually from about 10.3 million in 2001 to 16 million by 2006. Since 2001, Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration, which oversees the Consolidated Health Center Program, has established about 500 new or expanded sites that provide health care services to 2.1 million additional people.

“We have greatly expanded health center services over the last two years through the President’s initiative. As a result, millions of Americans now have access to vital services that help them live healthier lives,” Thompson said. “Awards like these in Maine build on our efforts to expand the health care safety net to more Americans who otherwise might not have access to health care.”

Health centers deliver primary and preventive care to patients regardless of their ability to pay. Almost 40 percent of the 12.4 million patients treated at health centers in 2003 had no insurance coverage. Charges for health care services are set according to income, and fees are not collected from the poorest patients.