Community health centers cut Medicaid costs.

• Position: STATESTATS - Table

Health centers currently provide health care for some 15 million people at 5,000 different locations. More than 40 percent of the patients who use these facilities are uninsured, and 36 percent are Medicaid recipients.

Health centers are located in medically underserved area, and are responsible for providing primary care services such as preventative screening, immunizations, chronic disease management, and mental health and substance abuse services.

The clinics have provided a health care "home" for people without doctors and have decreased hospital visits. They can also be credited with cutting infant mortality rates and low birth weight rates in the communities where they are located by providing prenatal care, health education, and child health services.

They also are an economically "smart" option; studies show community health centers reduce Medicaid's annual spending by 30 percent by decreasing hospital admission rates.

WHERE MEDICAID ENROLLEES LIVE Medicaid enrollment Rank as a percent of total population United States 17% Tennessee 28 California 25 Vermont 25 Mississippi 24 New Mexico 24 Maine 22 South...