SENATOR KERRY TO TOUR GEIGER GIBSON COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER IN DORCHESTER TODAY, AUGUST 10, 2010
BOSTON– As part of National Community Health Center Week, Senator John Kerry will tour the Geiger Gibson Community Health Center in Dorchester on Tuesday afternoon. Kerry will also highlight the $11 billion in federal funding from the Affordable Care Act being invested in to community health centers nationally over the next 10 years. Opened in 1965, Geiger Gibson was the first community health center in the nation.– Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, both of Maine. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided a 6.2 percent increase in Medicaid (FMAP) as well as additional FMAP assistance for states with high unemployment. These increases come to an abrupt halt on December 31, 2010, which occurs in the middle of fiscal year 2011 for most states – including Massachusetts.
Kerry will discuss legislation that passed the Senate last week which will provide $450 million in federal funding to extend Medicaid programs.
The bill passed by a vote of 61-38 last Wednesday with the support of two Republicans
Kerry has spent months fighting for a six-month extension of the Recovery Act FMAP provisions. In January, he led an effort with 37 of his colleagues to include this extension in the health reform bill. In February, he joined with even more colleagues to get this extension included in forthcoming jobs creation legislation. In June he worked with the Massachusetts House delegation to express strong support for including the FMAP extension in a letter to Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid.
The bill now goes to the House of Representatives, which is scheduled to vote on it Tuesday.
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