Lowell Community Health Center rallies for funding

LOWELL — “What do we want?”

“Health!”

“What do we need?”

“Funding!”

“When do we need it?”

“Now!”

Health-center advocates wearing red clothes and holding signs repeated these chants Tuesday on Jackson Street in Lowell, hoping politicians all the way down in Washington, D.C. could hear their pleas.

Dozens of Lowell Community Health Center employees and supporters gathered outside the center for a rally during the “National Day of Demonstration — Red Alert for Health Centers.” Advocates wore red in support of health centers and the patients they serve.

“We wear red to signal the urgency of this request,” said Sheila Och, chief of community health and policy at the Lowell center. “Today, we wear red because the time for action is now.”

There was hope Congress would include the health-center funding with last months’s reauthorization of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), but that package didn’t materialize. If Congress doesn’t reauthorize the Community Health Centers Fund (CHCF), Lowell Community Health Center would lose close to $3 million and Fitchburg’s Community Health Connections would lose almost $3.5 million.

CHCF expired in September.

“Our community’s health truly depends on it,” Och told supporters wearing reds pins with #RedAlert4CHCS. They held signs that read: “Fix The Cliff” and “There Is Too Much At Stake.”

Lowell center leaders remain optimistic that Congress will authorize funding by the end of March — the conclusion of the health center’s funding cycle.

About $2.8 million — 6 percent of its annual operating budget — is at risk if the funding is not restored. Lowell Community Health Center serves as the “family doctor” for nearly half of the city’s population. The center has 400 employees, and plans on hiring 60 staff members over the next year to meet the community’s needs.

“We just need to continue to make noise for health centers across the nation,” Och said.

She urged supporters to contact politicians in Congress — via email, phone and social media — to let them know about the importance of health-center funding.

Lowell Community Health Center CEO Susan West Levine was in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, meeting with Congresswoman Niki Tsongas, a staunch advocate of health centers, according to Och. They were discussing ways to fix the funding cliff.

“We’re incredibly thankful for Niki Tsongas for her advocacy,” Och said.

According to the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers, these centers support about 12,000 jobs across Massachusetts and generate close to $1 billion in annual health-care savings for the state.

Health centers provide primary care to one-out-of-every-seven state residents — or nearly 1 million people. Massachusetts could lose about $196 million in funding and more than 141,000 state residents could be affected.

“We’re just trying to get the message out there,” said Sochenda Uch, communications coordinator at the Lowell center. “It’s important that Congress makes a decision quickly.”

Fitchburg’s community health center would lose around $3.4 million in federal funding, which is about 15 percent of its operating budget.

Like Lowell, the Fitchburg center’s funding cycle ends in March. The Fitchburg center did not hold a rally on Tuesday.

Follow Rick Sobey on Twitter @rsobeyLSun.