Pacific Business News
April 13, 2005

Health centers will share $1.3M
Two community health centers will receive federal grants totaling $1.3 million to help provide health-care services to more of Hawaii's uninsured on Oahu and the Big Island.

U.S. Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawaii, began lobbying the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to support the West Hawaii Community Health Center in Kailua-Kona and Koolauloa Community Health and Wellness Center in Kahuku, which will each receive $650,000 at the end of the year.

"Our community health centers play an even larger role in our rural communities where options and access are severely limited," Case said.

The money will create more primary and preventive health care on the Big Island and for Oahu residents on the North Shore, Kahuku, Laie and Hauula. It's estimated that nearly 40 percent of the patients treated at health centers have no insurance coverage, or inadequate coverage.