(From left) Treg Long with the American Cancer Society, Julie Andersen with Tobacco-Free Marion County, and Barbara Kumpe with

Handsel Art

PRESS RELEASE

Date: 2 September 2007

For Immediate Release

Contact: J.R. Few at

(870) 427-1365 or email

Community Health Centers Focus, Expand

(From left) Treg Long with the American Cancer Society, Julie Andersen with Tobacco-Free Marion County, and Barbara Kumpe with the American Heart Association pause a moment during a summit on health policy for the Community Health Centers of Arkansas (CHCA) at the University Hilton in Little Rock recently. The day long seminar titled, “The Health Crisis, an Unconscionable Reality”, featured policy makers from Governor Mike Beebe to U.S. Senator Blanch Lincoln, Representative John Boozman, and Representative Marion Berry.

Attendees and speakers dealt with the issue of health care disparities in Arkansas and the nation. Later in the day selected Arkansas state legislators led a panel discussion coordinated by Arkansas Surgeon General Joe Thompson. Break out groups repeatedly encouraged raising tobacco taxes and removing exemptions to Arkansas’ Clean Indoor Air laws. CHCA led the Step Up Coalition to increase tobacco taxes during the 2007 legislative session.

The keynote speaker, former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. .Joycelyn Elders, made special point to note that insurance coverage did not equal health care. She continued that the United States, “has a poor health care system but an excellent sick care system.” Across the globe, she added, preventative health care is the key to a healthy community. Speaking with reporters she questioned the wisdom of spending more on prisons than education in the U.S.

On August 30 CHCA announced the opening of 3 new health centers as the result of President Bush’s “High Poverty County Initiative,” rewarding three Arkansas counties — Montgomery, Lincoln and Benton as among the 200 poorest in the nation. Spokespersons for the CHCA, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, were unable to explain how Benton County in booming Northwest Arkansas was considered one of the poorest in the nation by the President.

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