Gov. Jim Doyle describes the change that has happened over the past 18 months.
MILWAUKEE – U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen
Sebelius visited here Friday morning to announce more than $5 million in
federal grants to enrich two of the state’s community health care
clinics.
Sebelius made the announcement at the Sixteenth Street Community
Health Center, which will receive about $2.6 million of the funding to
build a new community health clinic in downtown Waukesha.
“(A community health clinic) isn’t the care of ‘last resort;’ it
often is the frontline of affordable care and it’s what a lot of folks
rely on,” Sebelius said, calling these centers models for health clinics
across the nation.
Sebelius praised both Wisconsin and in particular Gov. Jim Doyle for
national leadership in health care advances – such as the BadgerCare
program – which became models for national health care reform.
The funding is part of a nationwide investment of $727 million in
community health care clinics. The other Wisconsin clinic chosen, the
Kenosha Community Health Center, will receive almost $2.9 million.
Also at the press conference, Doyle shot back at critics of the
reform and of President Barack Obama, saying a lot of “change” has
happened since the bill’s passage and since Obama took office.
“I’m getting a little perturbed here. When people tell me we haven’t
seen enough ‘change,’ I’ll say in 18 months…you’ve seen this commitment
to health care and it’s only going to get more significant in the coming
years,” Doyle said.
Among the many accomplishments of the bill, Doyle said, is the fact
that young adults up to age 26 can stay on their parents’ insurance
coverage.
“I’ve had kids in that age group. The saddest day of my life is when
they graduated from college,” Doyle said. “It should’ve been my happiest
day, but the saddest day is that I could no longer carry them (on our
insurance policy).”
U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Milwaukee, also defended the health care bill
at the press conference by saying it will save millions of dollars
while still providing citizens with quality health care.
Moore added she is glad the Sixteenth Street Community Health Center
received such a large sum, as many federal health grants for building
costs do not exceed $1 million.
“It is a coup to use this (funding) for capital improvement,” Moore
said. “It is so hard to get appropriations out of Congress for building
anything.”
The funding will go toward furnishing and construction costs for a
new community health care center in downtown Waukesha, according to John
Bartkowski, president and CEO of the Sixteenth Street Community Health
Center.
“It isn’t often I can say we got $2.6 million,” Bartkowski told The
Badger Herald. “A little over two years ago we saw the need in
Waukesha…and a new state of the art center would be a tremendous
resource.”
Bartkowski said the new facility, which he estimates will open next
year, will be run in partnership with southeast Wisconsin’s ProHealth
Care. He added the clinic will employ 10 physicians and have the
capacity to treat approximately 30,000 patients per year.
