“When you don’t have health insurance, what do you do? You forgo necessary treatment. You put things on hold. You don’t access your preventive care,” says Patricia Sarvela, chief development officer at Partnership Community Health Center in Wisconsin’s Fox Valley.

Instead, patients may end up going to a hospital emergency room, “or having a preventable hospitalization and ultimately ending up with poor health outcomes,” she adds. “And when people are sick and not well, they don’t thrive in school, in their job, in life.”

Partnership Community Health has clinics in Winnebago, Outagamie and Waupaca counties. In addition to primary care, including pediatric care, the organization offers dental care and treatment for mental health and substance abuse.

It’s one of 19 community health center organizations in Wisconsin, operating in 60 locations across the state. The centers provide health care free or on a sliding scale for people without insurance with incomes up to 200% of the federal poverty guideline. The centers also have patients enrolled in BadgerCare Plus, Wisconsin’s Medicaid program for primary health care.