Feds to give community health centers $150 million for ACA outreach

Responding to criticism that not enough money has been allocated to educating consumers about enrolling in health exchanges, the Obama administration announced Thursday that community health centers across the country will get $150 million to help uninsured Americans sign up for health insurance coverage under the ACA (Source: “Health centers get $150 million to help the uninsured navigate new coverage options,” Associated Press via Washington Post, May 9, 2013).

The announcement comes a month after the administration made $54 million available to states and private groups so that they could hire new health insurance “navigators.” The same concept is being applied to the nation’s 1,200 community health centers, which serve about 21 million patients each year, many of them without health insurance.