The News Tracker

But even this charitable foundation understands that there is no substitute for getting Americans enrolled in some mechanism that can get them the continuing care everyone in this country needs. Michele Bachmann told a crowd over the weekend that Americans can rely on charitable organizations if they cannot afford health care. I actually saw evidence of this over the weekend in Los Angeles.

She was number 484, and by midday Saturday they were at 450. The floor of the arena was full of medical professionals dispensing a variety of care, including dental and vision services, mammograms and other women’s health, immunizations and vaccinations, meditation, acupuncture, HIV and STD testing (a sign announced “results in about 20 minutes”), pharmaceutical services, and more. “I’m waiting for my number to be called,” said one lady in line for dental care. At the LA Sports Arena last week, the non-profit CareNow USA ran a free medical, dental and vision care health clinic, which brought in thousands of uninsured Los Angeles residents. There are a staggering two million uninsured residents in Los Angeles County, as many people as the entire population of the state of Nevada. Most of the patients treated at the clinic were uninsured, but a substantial amount were also underinsured; one of the reasons that dental care dominated the floor space at the clinic is because of major cutbacks to dental care through Medi-Cal, the Medicaid system in California.

In the richest country in the world, we still have 50 million uninsured people, many of whom have to rely on clinics like you would see in the Third World for their primary care. I came to the free clinic expecting to be a little despairing. A four-day clinic cannot possibly accommodate the needs of 2 million uninsured residents. There just isn’t enough help that you can give from a charitable perspective. And there’s a serious capacity problem. Indeed, patients had to choose between dental or vision services, unable to receive both at the clinic.

The program, which has been around for six years, just expanded on July 1, with a goal of reaching 177,000 uninsured residents in the city. Healthy Way LA, a program out of the city’s Department of Health Services which provides no-cost care through a state-federal Medicaid grant, was well represented at the event. And the free clinic was an excellent site for recruitment. “It’s a popular program here today, we have signed up hundreds of people to get more information,” said Frank Martinez, the Marketing Representative for Healthy Way LA who manned the booth on Saturday. A lot of people come here already knowing about us,” said Martinez. But other booths promoted existing programs to ensure coverage for the uninsured. They were taking names to follow up for future contact at the clinic, so they can check eligibility and sign them up. “The word of mouth has been tremendous through the media.

“We like events like this where we can educate people on what’s available,” said the representative of LA Care. Additional booths set people up with a low-cost health insurance connector. Other providers, like LA Care, which offers Medi-Cal, Healthy Kids, Healthy Families and Medicare Advantage plans, were handing out information at the event.

“I got an appointment for a followup,” said one patient. Aftercare providers were also notified. Before leaving, each patient was routed to a follow-up checkout, where city residents would be looked up by zip code and medical needs and referred to representatives of the community health centers in attendance. “I have potential glaucoma because of a family history, and so they gave me a referral.”. Healthy Way LA sets residents up at a “medical home,” typically one of the many community health centers in the city, and allows them to use it for all their medical needs on a rolling basis. In fact, one of the central focuses of the clinic was to match people up with their medical homes at the city’s community health centers.

And a lot of dedicated people are trying to make that happen. It was great to see the focus on getting continuing care at this event. Contra Ms. But lowering the rate of uninsured will, and a lot of the barriers here are just public education about their options and alternatives. With community health centers, locally-based programs for low or no-cost care and the expansion of Medicaid, we can truly make a dent in the uninsured without putting hardships or burdens on the individual. Bachmann, charity cannot possibly fill the needs of the uninsured.

I thank God for the LA clinic and wish it could be provided in other cities. I’ve become involved with the Sacramento Valley Health Care for All – California group and attended a Town Hall on Sunday afternoon featuring the director of the Vermont Workers Center, which has worked so hard and so well to get the first first step toward a single payer bill passed in Vermont. But how much better if SB 810 had been passed this year and Gov. The video of their corporate and extremely broad community involvement throughout the state was very enlightening and exciting. Brown had passed it.

Brown would not veto it. Here in California we are so very far from that level of organization and the steering committee of the 20-odd NPO groups that are working on the current campaign. Those who care about health care are urged to join us in the campaign. Folks in other areas can get info about this and other groups across the state at http://www.healtcareforall.org/about-us/hca-chapters/. While the CA bill has been passed twice, the Terminator twice vetoed it. (Our local leader is Carolyn Negrete, 916-424-5316, [email protected] At any rate, all action is on hold until January or later. In the meantime, folks in the Sacto area who would like to help us work ongathering broad community support are encouraged to attend the Nov 5 meeting of the local group at 10-12 in the basement cafeteria of the old capitol. We assume (how rightly is unknown) that Gov. We’ll need all kinds of help in the coming months.

Related Stories