In Virginia, half the state's community health centers closing or cutting services [View all]

[AverageOldGuy]

Half of Virginia’s community health centers have been cut off from federal grant money, forcing some to stop providing certain services and others to close branches.

The commonwealth has 31 Federally Qualified Health Centers with over 200 locations — a majority of which serve rural areas with limited access to medical care. Annually, about 400,000 Virginians rely on the care provided by these nonprofit, community-based centers, according to the Virginia Community Healthcare Association.

They provide primary health, dental, behavioral health, and pharmaceutical and substance abuse services to people with Medicaid or Medicare, the underinsured and the uninsured. They also treat those with private insurance on a sliding fee scale.

Since Jan. 28, 16 of the state’s FQHCs have been unable to access federal funding that allows them to pay employees, according to Joe Stevens, a VCHA spokesperson.

-Read more: https://www.vpm.org/news/2025-02-04/virginia-community-health-centers-close-federal-funding-grant-access



Why are these centers closing? Because Trump and Elon Musk have taken control of the US Treasury system that issues checks and they have ordered Treasury to stop supporting these clinics.

Note this part: “— a majority of which serve rural areas with limited access to medical care”. That’s rural Virginia which voted overwhelmingly for Trump and which sends Republicans to Congress and which elected a Trump Republican as governor in 2021..