(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – Twenty dollar bills are counted on June 15, 2018, in North Andover, Mass. The number of Americans who do not have a bank account fell to a record low last year, as the proliferation of online-only banks and an improving economy is bringing more Americans into the traditional financial system, according to a report Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)

(Reported by Danielle Smith of Keystone News Service)

(Harrisburg, PA) Pennsylvania health-care advocates are in Washington, D.C. today and Wednesday to urge Congress to extend federal funding for Community Health Centers before the end-of-the-year deadline. Community Health Centers serve as primary-care providers for more than 32-million Americans. Joe Dunn with National Association of Community Health Centers says more than three hundred advocates are rallying for a solution and to ensure that patients can continue to get health access and be seen by their clinicians. Health centers receive federal funding from two sources, annual discretionary funding and multi-year base funding. In March, Congress extended the base funding through this month at a rate of more than four billion per year. This bipartisan legislation would need to continue to increase funding for health centers.