Sen. Bernie Sanders’ plan to fortify primary care and the health care workforce is drawing swift opposition from hospitals — and stirring dissent on the Senate HELP Committee he chairs, Axios reports.
Sanders struck an unlikely alliance with conservative Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas, and the pair spent the August recess hammering out a plan unveiled Thursday that would increase funding for community health centers to $5.8 billion per year for three years and take other steps to address a shortage of health care professionals.
The legislation would provide some measure of certainty to health centers serving 31 million patients across the country, and is due to be marked up on Sept. 21 — nine days before their funding is due to lapse with the end of the fiscal year.
To pay for new spending, the legislation has offsets that are highly objectionable to hospitals and some other health interests. Read more.
