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Star Tribune OnLine Monday, March 5, 2001 Thompson visits community health center in Milwaukee By CARRIE ANTLFINGER / Associated Press Writer MILWAUKEE (AP) -- President Bush plans to increase the number of community-based health-care centers by 40 percent and double the 11 million people they serve, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said Monday. Thompson, who was Wisconsin's governor for 14 years until taking the federal post earlier this year, toured the Sixteenth Street Community Health Center, touting it an example for the rest of the nation. "People come here because they know they will be taken care of," said Thompson, adding he didn't have any problem deciding where to visit when the president wanted him to promote health care centers. "Everyone loves working here, everyone loves coming here." Bush's budget calls for $124 million to increase the number of such centers by 1,200 nationwide, which Thompson said will be a significant step to help underprivileged families obtain health care. "We must strengthen the health care safety net, and we must build a healthier America," the secretary said. "Community health-care centers provide the access to health care for millions of Americans who have been locked out of the traditional health care system, and this administration will do everything it can to break down those barriers." The 32-year-old Sixteenth Street center is on the city's south side, where a large portion of Milwaukee's Hispanic population lives. Its 18 doctors serve low-income residents from many cultural and language backgrounds, including Hispanic, Hmong and Laotian. Thompson also said since taking the post more than a month ago, he and Bush have had few disagreements. Both agree that a comprehensive patient's bill of rights needs to be drafted, Medicare needs an overhaul, more money needs to be put into preventive care and the number of organ donors needs to be increased nationwide, the secretary said. Scientists who hope to conduct research using embryonic stem cells should not be concerned about the March 15 deadline to submit applications for federal funding, Thompson said. During the approximately five-month application review process, Thompson said he plans to put together a legal panel to study if it is legal to use federal money to fund such experiments. Thompson, who was supportive of stem-cell research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, also plans to put together a committee to look at the scientific and moral issues of such research. Scientists see research on human embryonic stem cells as a pathway to progress on Parkinson's and other diseases. But anti-abortion groups oppose federal funding, because the research involves the destruction of embryos, typically ones unneeded by fertility clinics. There are also legal questions about the use of federal funds, due to a congressional ban. The Clinton administration interpreted the ban as allowing funding in certain cases, but President Bush may derail the grants. During Thompson's tour of the center, he talked to patients, doctors and pharmacists, asking them how they were doing and practicing his Spanish on the mostly Hispanic patients and workers. Elvira Ramirez, a prenatal outreach worker at the center, followed the secretary and an entourage of news media people around the center. "It's always nice when we have company," Ramirez said. On The Net: Department of Health and Human Services: http://www.hhs.gov Copyright 2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. http://www2.startribune.com/stOnLine/cgi-bin/article?thisStory=83703672 *********