Health centers struggling.

• Position: TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS

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Safety-net health centers are struggling to keep up with the growing demand for services from America's uninsured, a number that has grown alongside unemployment rates.

Health centers are nonprofit providers of primary and preventive health care that serve as medical homes to a disproportionate number of the nation's low-income and uninsured patients in all 50 states. Annually, health centers serve 20 million patients.

Research shows that health centers improve access to health care, help people manage their chronic diseases and reduce emergency room visits, all of which contribute to total health care system savings. It is estimated that health centers save between $9.9 billion and $17.6 billion a year.

About 38 percent of health center patients are uninsured. Uninsured patients increased from 6.5 million in June 2008 to 7.8 million in June 2009 because of the loss of employer-sponsored insurance, strained family finances and other pressures of the economic downturn.

At the same time, states are grappling with nearly unprecedented financial situations that put state appropriations for health centers in jeopardy. Thirty-six states and the District of Columbia report providing state funding to health centers in FY 2010. In an effort to balance their budgets, however, 23 states have decreased funding to health centers in FY 2010. Two states, Idaho...