The nation’s community health centers face money troubles

Shalina Chatlani, Stateline.org

NEW YORK — On a busy street in Queens, New York, just around the corner from a halal hot chicken sandwich restaurant and a barber shop, the Long Island City Health Center welcomes its patients into a brightly lit waiting room, painted baby blue and filled with soft white and gray seats.

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A woman working behind the desk on a recent weekday answered one patient’s questions in Spanish. Other patients came dressed in hijabs, kurtas or other traditional clothing from countries around the globe. A caseworker assigned to the center rolled one woman, wheelchair-bound because of a stroke, toward an examination room.

The Long Island City Health Center is part of a national network of more than 1,300 community health centers, safety-net clinics that