Health clinic funding to help patients Houghton Co.

Funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will create 32 Health Center delivery sites across the country and expand health care services, including two clinics in the Upper Peninsula.

The HHS announced $67 million dollars to fund the new sites to expand access to care at existing centers.

The Upper Great Lakes Family Health Center in Marquette County will receive some of the funding.  The center is expected to receive almost $740,000 in funding to provide are to 3,750 under-served patients at two clinics in Houghton County.

In a press release, U.S. Senator Debbir Stabenow (D) stated, “These new health centers will provide care to thousands of families in the Keweenaw Peninsula who do not have access to a family doctor.  Since being elected to the Senate, securing funding for community health centers has been one of my top priorities, and I am pleased 23 new centers have been established in Michigan since 2001.”

UGLFHC was established in 2009 and is a private not-for-profit health center that currently provides primary health care in two Marquette County communities:  Gwinn and K.I. Sawyer.  UGLFHC is a Federally Qualified Health Center, which means they offer quality health care regardless of patients’ ability to pay.

U.S. Senator Carl Levin (D) stated his support of the funding.

“The Affordable Care Act will help make sure every Michiganian and every American has access to affordable, quality health care,” Levin said in a press release.

This federal grant will help support the Upper Great Lakes Family Health Center as it works to provide first-rate health care services in Houghton County.”

Michigan Health Centers operate over 220 health care delivery sites in areas across the state that provide medical, dental, and behavioral health care regardless of income level or insurance status.