Foundation helps health care clinic to open The Corydon Democrat Wednesday, October 25, 2006
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"At least you have the money to take them to the doctor."
This statement by my mother as I was complaining about having to take my young children to the doctor's office again, stays in my mind decades later.
I knew growing up we were poor. Poor enough that sometimes we were hungry; poor enough that I wore hand-me-downs from my cousins; and, poor enough, I was learning, that we never went to the doctor's. I was rarely ill and being self centered, as children are, never realized that I was the healthy one in the family. I couldn't relate to my brother having earaches, my mother migraines and my younger brother rheumatic fever, which affects him even years later. Dad's constant heartburn and indigestion? Isn't that why Tums was invented? I didn't know they didn't go to the doctor because we didn't have the money. I just thought they weren't sick enough. Mom said that the time my brother was diagnosed with rheumatic fever, she prayed for their income tax refund to come so that she could take him to the doctor. She already owed the doctor too much from the last time my brother was sick.
Dad always worked, but unskilled, rarely made enough money to provide adequately for his family. Mom stayed home and took care of the house and family as most mothers did in the 1950s.
Today my family would be classified as the working poor, and Hoosier Health Wise would provide health insurance for my brothers and me. My parents would be counted among the 850,000-plus Hoosiers without health insurance and yet also without enough money to pay for health care. Some things haven't changed.
In Harrison County alone, more than 3,000 people are low-income and without health insurance, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Contrary to what many people believe, most of the uninsured are not eligible for Medicaid.
We use terms like they "fall between the cracks" to describe why they can't afford health care. Many physicians donate services to the uninsured, but medications and diagnostics are hard to come by.
Through the generous support of the Harrison County Community Foundation and individuals in the community, things will soon change for the uninsured poor of the county. Projected to open this fall, the Family Health Center of Harrison County Inc. will provide medical care on a sliding fee basis to the residents of the county who are within 200 percent of the federal poverty guidelines. For a family of four, the maximum gross annual income is $33,200; in other counties, 75 percent of the patients are at an income level of $20,000 gross annually for a family of four. We expect to see this same pattern in Harrison County.
Volunteer physicians and nurses will staff the clinic. The Harrison County Health Dept.'s clinic will provide space and the hospital, diagnostic services. A governing board of directors composed of Harrison County leaders will assure that approved procedures are followed.
Funding to support a two-evening per week clinic has been donated by the Harrison County Community Foundation. The Foundation also provided a grant to organize and develop the clinic plan and get things started.
The leadership of the Harrison County Community Foundation motivated the county, making it possible for the health center to become real; making it possible for all Harrison County residents to have access to affordable health care so they don't have to pray for income tax refunds to come.
