Needs of uninsured met by Free Clinic
Lynchburg News and Advance
Wednesday, May 21, 2004The medical catastrophe confronting this country is not cancer, heart disease or AIDS, although all of those diseases are catastrophic to those affected. The real catastrophe is the rising number of those who have no health insurance for themselves or their families. A national effort sponsored last week - Cover the Uninsured Week - called attention to the problem and the fact that few in Congress or in the states are working to do anything about it. Former presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter chaired the program.
An analysis of government data shows that at least 20 million working Americans do not have health care coverage. Another 24 million Americans must resort to either putting off health care, including preventative care, or take their illnesses to the local hospital emergency room, which is the most expensive treatment available.
Some 14.2 percent of Virginia adults between the ages of 18 and 64 do not have health insurance. That’s about 665,000 people. Of those, nearly half have at least one child in the home. About 11 percent of all working adults are not insured. And of those, 23.8 percent say they have not been able to get medical care in the past 12 months.
Those 65 and older are eligible for Medicare, the government-run health insurance program.
In this part of the state, the Free Clinic of Central Virginia is available for the working poor and for those who have no health insurance. Without the services of the clinic, many who cannot afford health insurance or whose employers do not provide health insurance would be left without medical assistance. Some 23,500 people in the region do not have health insurance.
The Free Clinic, located on Main Street, is a blessing for those families, including the ones who are working but without health insurance benefits. They would have nowhere else to turn.
Irving Irizarry has a number of health problems, including diabetes and impaired use of his legs that has left him disabled - and without health insurance.
He has been a patient at the Free Clinic for about 3½ years and has nothing but praise for the treatment he has received there.
“If it wasn’t for the Free Clinic, I tell you the truth, I would be 6 feet under,” he told Cynthia Pegram of The News & Advance last week. “How would I be getting my medication? I don’t know. How would I pay my (medical) bills?”
Bob Barlow, executive director of the Free Clinic, said that one group of people who end up at the clinic are there as a result of an anomaly that has developed in the workplace. They include people working two jobs - 20 to 25 hours a week at each - but neither has health insurance benefits.
Barlow said that because health insurance has become so expensive, many companies have turned to offering part-time positions without the benefit. “If they can hire two people at 25 hours a week, they end up doing better than hiring one person at 40 hours a week,” he said.
Folks working two jobs to make ends meet belies the notion, he said, “that most uninsured people aren’t trying to work or aren’t working … who aren’t doing anything to help themselves. That’s really not the case.”
Most have fallen victim to some kind of circumstance with an employer, the economy or society, Barlow said. “They end up being captured by that situation and they can’t get out of it.”
With health insurance premiums skyrocketing, the number of families without any coverage is rising almost as fast. In Central Virginia, the Free Clinic ensures that some of those folks, at least, will continue to get attention for basic health needs.
The clinic is helping postpone the local catastrophe that is the growing number of uninsured. Former President Carter pointed to the problem at the national level when he said in connection with Cover the Uninsured Week, “For far too many years, our nation has not lived up to its full potential by delaying the day when all Americans will have health care coverage. Leaders of every one of our communities need to commit themselves to fulfilling this basic human right.”
He’s right. And while health care providers are working on cures for cancer, heart disease and AIDS, the cure for those without health insurance - political will - is missing.
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