The latest Republican health care bill may have met its end earlier this week in Congress, but there’s more health care legislation awaiting a decision by the weekend. Three federal programs providing aid to the Valley are due to expire on Saturday night. The first is the Community Health Center Fund, which provides 70 percent of funding to some health centers in underserved and disadvantaged areas. From 2011-2016, California received $ 1.6 billion from the fund–the most of any state. Without the fund, Clinica Sierra Vista CEO Steve Schilling says, in the short term, his clinics would be forced to stop expanding. But, says Schilling, “After April 1, 2018, without a resolution of this, we will start laying off staff and shutting facilities.” Next is funding for Teaching Health Centers–medical residency programs also in underserved areas. Valley Health Team CEO Soyla Reyna-Griffin is confident Congress will before the weekend, but if they don’t, she says she’ll do everything she can to
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