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Preventative Medicine & Access
The CDC reports nearly 20-40% of premature deaths in the United States are caused by preventable chronic illnesses. These illnesses include heart disease, metabolic disease, respiratory illnesses, stroke, and cancer. Many of these diseases are highly treatable and preventable with lifestyle changes. However, the social determinants of health like demographic, economic, and social attributes of an individual influence health disparities as well. Obesity and Tobacco related diseases are responsible for a large portion of preventable diseases in the United States and are more prevalent among lower socioeconomic status individuals. It comes with little surprise, community health centers can play a pivotal role in prevention and treatment by increasing access to healthcare. These community health centers are able to save overall healthcare costs by increasing access to preventative and diagnostic care and decreasing the burden on emergency services. Care for stage IV cancer, an overdose, or a heart attack is much more expensive than a cancer screening, substance abuse treatment, or a stress test. These community health centers dramatically reduce the healthcare burden in the United States, saving roughly $24 billion a year, according to some estimates. Individuals who have difficultly accessing healthcare, typically the socioeconomically disadvantaged and the homeless, are more likely to utilize emergency services. What makes community health centers particularly effective in treating patients in underserved communities is the National Association of Community Health Center's Four Pillars (Located in Areas of High Need, Comprehensive Set of Services, Open to Everyone, Patient-Majority Governing Boards). Emergency Department resources come at a much higher cost than those available at community health centers. Community health centers have also increased access for veterans. As many American continue to remain uninsured, community health centers are at the frontline as a provider of primary care. The number of health centers has more than doubled in the United States since the year 2000 where only 720 centers existed. The number of patients with access to care has dramatically increased with this increase in the number of health centers.

Economic Aspects & Challenges
In the past 20 years, community health centers have increased the number of patients served from roughly 9 million to 28 million patients. As community health centers have continued to grow for the past 20 years so have their local economies. The economic relief from treating individuals of lower socioeconomic backgrounds and the uninsured has resulted in annual savings of $24 billion. Besides direct and indirect healthcare savings, economic impact is also measured employment and tax revenue generated. Community health centers are typically located in economically deprived neighborhoods and thus they play a pivotal role in creating economic opportunity for the community. It's currently estimated, over 200,000 jobs are created by community health centers. This job creation may explain why every $1 million of federal funding yields $1.73 million. As job are created for the community, tax revenues generated by consumers and businesses are increased annually by an estimated $2.4 million. Two large challenges remain for community health centers: increasing access and increasing funding. Although community health centers annually treat nearly 24 million patients, there remain 90 million people still in need of healthcare. Evidence suggests continued growth of primary care with additional health centers to these underserved areas can increase access. However, in order to increase the number of community health centers, federal funding is required to continue expansion of services and treating patients. Funding delays like the one seen in 2017 by the Community Health Center Fund (CHCF) resulted in hiring freezes, layoffs, cancelling or delaying new projects, and eliminating services like dental or mental services. Despite numerous financial stressors, community health centers demonstrate the economic and public health benefits of their existence.