Sip Mouden, CEO of Community Health Centers of Arkansas, says FQHCs are the best kept secret that shouldn't be a secret.
When WORLD intern Kira Clark asked 37 charitably minded Americans what they thought about FQHCs, she found that not one had heard of them.
FQHCs are Federally Qualified Health Centers. They receive cash from Washington-start-up funding of up to $650,000, and millions afterward—plus free malpractice coverage under the Federal Tort Claims Act. They must be governed by a board of directors, a majority of whom must be active, registered FQHC patients.
Legislators and officials originally created FQHCs to reduce the patient load on hospital emergency rooms, but their function has expanded to serve potentially all poor or uninsured Americans and immigrants. Some 1,100 FQHCs now provide services regardless of ability to pay.
What's not to like? Just this: FQHCs may be a healthcare blessing to some poor Americans, but if historical precedent holds, they will also become a curse. The precedent: American poverty-fighting until the 1930s was Christian—and community-based. The Depression intensified the challenge, but the New Deal, instead of bulwarking private programs, marginalized them. A generation later the War on Poverty warred on the remaining Christian programs.
The result: Soulless welfare offices replaced charities that offered challenging, personal, and spiritual help. In many households, provision from the government replaced provision from a husband and father—and devalued men slunk away. Washington enabled more people to disable themselves by using drugs or alcohol. The same dollar flow went to a mother who cared for her children and one who selfishly ignored them.
Read more: http://townhall.com/columnists/marvinolasky/2012/09/21/will_washington_harm_communitybased_charity_again
When WORLD intern Kira Clark asked 37 charitably minded Americans what they thought about FQHCs, she found that not one had heard of them.
FQHCs are Federally Qualified Health Centers. They receive cash from Washington-start-up funding of up to $650,000, and millions afterward—plus free malpractice coverage under the Federal Tort Claims Act. They must be governed by a board of directors, a majority of whom must be active, registered FQHC patients.
Legislators and officials originally created FQHCs to reduce the patient load on hospital emergency rooms, but their function has expanded to serve potentially all poor or uninsured Americans and immigrants. Some 1,100 FQHCs now provide services regardless of ability to pay.
What's not to like? Just this: FQHCs may be a healthcare blessing to some poor Americans, but if historical precedent holds, they will also become a curse. The precedent: American poverty-fighting until the 1930s was Christian—and community-based. The Depression intensified the challenge, but the New Deal, instead of bulwarking private programs, marginalized them. A generation later the War on Poverty warred on the remaining Christian programs.
The result: Soulless welfare offices replaced charities that offered challenging, personal, and spiritual help. In many households, provision from the government replaced provision from a husband and father—and devalued men slunk away. Washington enabled more people to disable themselves by using drugs or alcohol. The same dollar flow went to a mother who cared for her children and one who selfishly ignored them.
Read more: http://townhall.com/columnists/marvinolasky/2012/09/21/will_washington_harm_communitybased_charity_again
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