The waiting room has never been this full.
During National Health Center Week 2026, HRSA released data that reframes how the entire U.S. healthcare system should be understood. HRSA-funded community health centers served 32.7 million patients in 2025 - a record high in the Health Center Program's 61-year history, up more than 350,000 from 2024. And when NACHC applies its broader methodology - counting all patients who receive care at CHC-affiliated sites - the number climbs to 52 million. That is 1 in 7 Americans. One year ago, the ratio was 1 in 10.
Those three words - 1 in 7 - are not a marketing stat. They are a structural fact about who delivers primary care in this country. Community health centers are not a supplement to the American healthcare system. For tens of millions of people, they are the system.
This milestone lands at exactly the wrong financial moment. The same week NACHC is celebrating record patient volume, it is also warning Congress that the funding model sustaining …
