The first community health centers officially opened in 1965 to fill large access gaps to the health care their community needed. Initially funded as a demonstration project by the lead agency of President Lydon Johnson’s “War on Poverty,” in 1977 the program became permanent under Section 330 of the U.S. Public Health Service Act. Since then the health center program has continued to evolve and expand to meet community needs, supported by presidents from both parties and bipartisan Congressional members.
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In Washington state, community leaders opened the first health center clinic in Seattle in 1967. The clinic was in a public housing development for residents who otherwise had to travel for hours on multiple buses to access medical care. The clinic was an immediate success, with 15 patients seen by medical providers on the very first night. Several other volunteer-based clinics were established in Seattle and throughout Washington in response to a greater emphasis on public health sweeping the country in the 1960s.
In Western Washington, community leaders established centers to serve populations that did not have access to culturally relevant care and to create health care access in communities facing economic challenges. Throughout Central and Eastern Washington, community leaders and health advocates established health centers to meet the needs of seasonal farmworkers, rural communities, and Urban Indian and Tribal communities.
Today, Washington’s community health center system serves nearly 1.3 million people at more than 450 clinics. Thirty-six percent of Washington’s Medicaid enrollees receive care at a health center, which is the highest proportion of enrollees served by CHCs in the nation. Health centers continue to build on the history of the movement, while embracing new ways to best care for vulnerable populations in a highly dignified and holistic manner.
