PORTLAND — The Portland Community Health Center, which opened 16 months ago to provide medical care to people who don’t have regular access to doctors, may lose its federal funding and shut down, says its chief executive officer.

Leslie Brancato and other officials at health centers nationwide have been watching Congress struggle to pass a federal budget and avert a government shutdown.

The House of Representatives’ budget called for a $1 billion cut in funding for the national network of nonprofit health centers. That could cut off funding to 127 centers that opened in the past two years, officials say.

The Senate rejected the initial House budget, and continuing spending resolutions have maintained funding for the centers.

But the ongoing effort by Republican House members to cut funding for the health care reform law, along with Congress’ inability to pass a budget, have left the centers in limbo.

The Portland Community Health Center receives $650,000 in federal funding toward its $1.5 million annual budget, Brancato said.

A $1 billion funding reduction nationwide would affect the center on Park Avenue and other health centers in Maine, especially those that plan to expand to meet growing demand, said Kevin Lewis, executive director of the Maine Primary Care Association. Overall, Maine could lose $3 million of the $14 million it gets each year to fund the centers, Lewis said.

“Their margin is close to zero, so you take away $3 million, which is what Maine is looking at losing, that’s a significant bite,” he said.

Federally qualified community health centers were created in 1965 as a way to prevent people from relying on hospital emergency rooms for their primary health care. The centers continue to fill that role, providing preventive care regardless of patients’ ability to pay.

Health centers focus on prevention and keeping patients healthy, both physically and mentally. Portland’s health center, for example, has primary care nurses and doctors, as well as psychiatric care providers and social workers.

The National Association of Community Health Centers estimates that the centers save $24 billion a year nationwide by keeping patients out of hospitals and emergency rooms. Health centers also provide care at a lower cost than private medical practices, the association says.

The Portland Community Health Center is the newest of 19 federally qualified community health centers in Maine and the only one in Cumberland County. It has built a base of 1,800 patients and expects to have 4,400 after its first three years in operation, assuming it stays open that long, Brancato said.

Most of the patients are covered by Medicaid, a federal program known as MaineCare in Maine. Because private medical offices get paid less to see and treat Medicaid patients, those patients can have a hard time finding doctors who will accept them into their practices.

Nearly one-third of the Portland center’s patients have no insurance. They pay what they can afford, based on a sliding scale. No one gets turned away for financial reasons.

“Our whole goal is to get people in,” Brancato said. “We want people to come before they are sick — when they can establish good health patterns — as well as when they are sick.”

Many patients show up with multiple untreated health problems, Brancato said. “For a lot of people, it’s the first time they’ve had medical care,” she said.

Sine Sakabera wanted to find a doctor for her two young children when she moved to Portland from Georgia last summer, she said. The children qualified for MaineCare, and when she called a doctor’s office in September, “they never answered me,” she said.

A relative in the area suggested that she go to the health center. “They accepted me the first time I came here,” Sakabera said.

She said she always feels welcome and the doctors and nurses take good care of her 8-year-old daughter, Blessing Kigme, and 2-year-old son, Andre Mbomba, who came in with an ear infection last week.

Another center patient, Susan O’Meara, is insured through Medicare, the government-sponsored insurance for adults 65 and older. O’Meara could find a private doctor if she wanted one, but she likes the welcoming atmosphere at the center and says her doctor is less rushed and takes a holistic approach to her health care.

“This is the way I think medical care ought to be delivered,” said O’Meara, who now serves on the center’s board of directors. “They have a belief and a value that everyone deserves basic health care.”

Brancato said Maine’s entire congressional delegation has supported health centers, which expanded under presidents Bush and Obama.

But at least some of the continuing funding for health centers, including Portland’s, is tied to the new health reform law, the Affordable Care Act. That means the future of the newest centers is caught up in efforts to block the controversial law.

House Republicans have said they support community health centers but are determined to cut funding from the health care reform law, which they say is unconstitutional and unsustainable.

Brancato met recently with the staffs of Maine U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. The Republican senators support the center, Brancato said, but she left uncertain about the fate of the budget.

Last week, Collins’ office said she has been a strong supporter of funding for the centers and sent a letter to Senate leaders saying Congress must rein in spending carefully, by assessing the benefits of programs and the consequences of cuts.

Snowe issued a statement saying the uncertainty about funding shows why Congress must pass a budget and not continue relying on two- and three-week spending bills.

She also said she strongly supports the centers and is grateful for the “critical access to essential health care services they provide to Mainers every day.”

Staff Writer John Richardson can be contacted at 791-6324 or at: jrichardson@pressherald.com