The services provided by those clinics are indispensable to poor and underserved Americans. Rising costs and inadequate appropriations make it urgent for us to find new ways to stretch current resources further. and these two bills are an impressive bipartisan response by Congress to this need. The Federally supported Health Centers Assistance Act of 1992 puts claims for medical malpractice against two types of these clinicscommunity health centers and migrant health centersunder the Federal Tort Claims Act. Currently. these centers spend $60 million a year on private malpractice insurance premiums10 percent of their annual appropriation. In some cases. the centers are unable to get malpractice insurance at all. which makes it impossible to hire physicians in specialties like obstetrics.