Written by Liz Schenkel, External Affairs Manager
As the backbone of primary care, health centers deliver affordable, high-quality services to nearly 34 million people across the country and over 162,000 people in the Dakotas. Our strength lies in being rooted in rural, frontier, and high-need communities – allowing us to deeply understand and meet the unique needs of each community and patient we serve.
This is a critical moment.
September 30, 2025, marks the end of the federal fiscal year and yet another federal funding cliff. Both the mandatory Community Health Center Fund (CHCF), which is about 70% of health center funding, and annual discretionary funding, ~30% of federal funding, expire on September 30 unless Congress passes legislation that includes funding for health centers.
What’s at stake:
For years, health centers have been savvy about stretching flat federal funding while costs for staffing, supplies, and technology have steadily climbed. The flat funding and increased costs are causing health centers to operate on razor-thin or negative margins, limiting their ability to expand services, modernize facilities, and recruit and retain high-quality staff.
Source: NACHC
The graphic above shows the history of health center funding. With no substantial funding increase since FY2015 and record inflation through the 2020s, health centers have a history of being tasked with doing more for patients with fewer financial resources. Without stable and adequate funding, access to care in rural and underserved communities across the Dakotas will be at risk.
You can stand up for health centers.
Now’s the time to make your voice heard to avoid a lapse in funding and ensure health centers have stable, sufficient resources that allow for planning ahead, recruiting and retaining staff, and continued ability to deliver high-quality care.
You can help by contacting your Members of Congress and urging them to:
- Pass seamless, multi-year reauthorization of the Community Health Center fund before September 30, 2025.
- Ensure funding levels reflect today’s cost of care and support the health center workforce.
- Recognize health centers as vital to addressing primary care shortages, behavioral health and dental needs, and better health outcomes for all in our region.
NACHC plans to release a new action alert shortly that will make it easy to call or email your member of Congress. Follow us on social media or watch for an update in your email so you can get the link to make your voice heard. Anyone who participates in the NACHC action alert will be entered into a prize drawing for a gift card to CHAD’s Bonfire store featuring health center merchandise! We will track our collective progress and share back with you the impact you and your peers are having!
At CHAD, we will continue to provide opportunities to engage in collective advocacy at both the state and federal levels. Together, we can ensure that decision makers understand the vital role health centers play in keeping communities healthy and strong. To make sure you don’t miss out on an opportunity to engage, join Dakota Health Center Voices and pick the updates and action alerts you want to receive.
