ABSTRACT
The growth, development, and investment in CHCs for uninsured and underserved populations has emerged as a trend since the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and U.S. healthcare reform of 2009. These clinics, also known as federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), for rural and impoverished medically underserved areas (MUAs) and medically underserved populations (MUPs) have been around since the late 1980s, but were not used nearly as frequently and stagnated in their development for the past two decades. Finally, since the early 2000s, they have been developing because the government decided to invest more in the CHCs due to a sudden surge in the demand for their usage. Possible reasoning for increases in this demand is the new importance placed on healthcare reform as well as healthcare information technology in various acts: Health Information Privacy Act (HIPAA), Health Information Technology Act (HITECH), etc. There was interest starting in the latter Clinton term, and continued through the investment in CHCs in the Bush era. Then there was a strong healthcare reform pursuit during the
Obama administration to build on these centers due to the growing uninsured populations, especially in rural areas, who needed access to care at low cost or possibly at no cost. There is importance in usage of CHCs for preventative and primary care, especially among the poor, so that the expensive emergency room usage can be reduced and early access to treatment and cures can be provided rather than treatment that requires lengthy hospitalization and inpatient care. Overall, early access to care can reduce mortality rates, improve the quality of life for many of the poor, and reduce costs across the board, both for the federal government and for the individual who uses tremendous resources in the healthcare system.
