Dear ACH Members,

National Health Center Week and candidate visits provide an important starting point for ongoing conversations. During the past few weeks, you have worked to educate candidates, invite them into your health center and show them firsthand how health centers strengthen their communities. Now it’s time to build on those connections and keep the conversation going.

Follow up with every candidate who visited or engaged with your health center. Thank them directly and publicly, and continue to connect the issues they hear about on the campaign trail to the patients, staff, and communities they hope to represent.

And if you haven’t heard back yet, keep asking. Campaign schedules change constantly, and an unanswered invitation is not necessarily a “no.” Send another invitation, offer several dates, and remind the campaign that a health center visit is an opportunity to hear directly from patients, providers, and community leaders about healthcare in the district.

While one visit rarely makes a champion, repeated conversations do. As you continue these conversations, remember to recap the policy priorities discussed, send follow-up resources and/or information, and let them know your health center is available as a resource when healthcare questions come up. Not every follow-up should be another ask, the goal is to become a familiar and trusted community voice for the campaign.

As you continue to have these conversations, keep the policy message simple and connect it directly to what candidates have seen and heard in your community. We suggest emphasizing:

• Protect 340B and oppose the harmful rebate model. Health centers use 340B savings to expand access to affordable medications and support services such as behavioral health, dental care, care coordination, transportation and other programs that meet community needs. Protecting predictable, upfront 340B discounts, and opposing policies that create cash-flow challenges or unnecessary administrative burdens, is essential to preserving patient care. The rebate model puts an unfair financial burden on health centers, the entities that can least afford it.

• Support the Community Health Center Fund. Stable, long-term funding allows health centers to plan, hire staff, expand services and continue providing care in communities across the country. Congress must fund the Health Center Fund with a strong baseline and regular increases when it expires on December 31, 2026.
• Strengthen the health center workforce. Investments in recruitment, training and retention are necessary to address persistent workforce shortages and ensure patients can access timely care. Please cosponsor the Developing the Community Health Workforce Act, HR 8629 (House only) which will strengthen and expand the health center workforce.

This Week's Resources

• Policy one-pagers

• An op-ed template

• A social media toolkit

• A local media pitch template

This Week's Action

Thank every candidate who has engaged with your health center, recognize their participation publicly and use the opportunity to reinforce the policies your health center and patients need. Then send another round of invitations to candidates who have not yet visited.

After a candidate has visited, find a reason to engage with them again before election day. The goal is to turn the interaction into a relationship, so persistence matters. Every visit, follow-up, and public acknowledgment helps build stronger relationships—and stronger champions for community health centers.

Sincerely,

Molly Grady

Director of Policy & Government Affairs