A Healthier Nation Thanks to Health Centers

A Healthier Nation Thanks to Health Centers

August 11, 2016

By: Mary K. Wakefield, Ph.D., RN, HHS Acting Deputy Secretary

Before his diagnosis, Emmanuel didn’t know he was diabetic. That is, until complications from diabetes nearly took both of his feet. Fortunately, there was a health center nearby. Unity Health Care in Washington, D.C., helped him connect with the Diabetes: Eating Right program. Thanks to the program’s emphasis on proper nutrition and weight loss strategies, he’s living healthier now – and managing his diabetes.
For Emmanuel and millions more, health centers across the country play a vital role in providing high-quality, comprehensive primary health care that would otherwise be out of their reach; because of cost or accessibility. In 1965, there were just two of these centers in the United States. Today, there are nearly 1,400. And 1 in every 13 people in the country receives care through a health center funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration.

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