Bush plan bolstered clinics

<p>Local health centers, longtime safety nets for low-income residents, many of them minorities, and migrant farmworkers, are increasingly seeing those who for years enjoyed premium health insurance plans.</p><p>Federal funding, which began long before President Barack Obama entered the national scene, has made that possible.</p><p>It was former President George W. Bush who beefed up the health center infrastructure that Obama has said will have a key place in providing national health care.</p><p>In 2002, Bush launched the Health Center Growth Initiative, an ambitious plan that led to the largest federal funding increase for health centers since the mid-1960s, when the federal government started supporting neighborhood clinics.</p><p>Since 2000, Bush's initiative has doubled federal funding for health centers to more than $2 billion a year and the number of health centers has grown to more than 1,100, serving more than 16 million patients. The massive health care bill making its way through the House would throw another $38 billion at health centers.</p><p>"Because of President Bush's commitment to double the number of paitents seen at community health centers, federal dollars which had been frozen for a numer of years suddently began to flow," said Carmela Castellano-Garcia, president and CEO of California Primary Care Association, which represents more than 600 nonprofit community clinics and health centers in the state.</p><p>"We call it the Bush Initiative, frankly," she said.</p><p>California, which has the largest number of community clinics in the country, went from having 50 health center institutions, many with multiple clinic sites, to 110. Castellano-Garcia said the health center infrastructure is ideally suited for health care overhaul.</p><p>"You go to a community health center and it is like going to a private doctor. In fact, it's better because it's more comprehensive," Castellano-Garcia said. "You can get your dental care, your children's health care. It makes sense that we're the model that's being built upon for national health care reform."</p><p>The state and large foundations also have made significant investments. In 2000, the California Legislature approved the $50 million Community Clinic Investment Act.</p><p>"California Endowment alone has invested $80 million over the last seven years, for health information technology and capital expansion," she said.</p>