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The Georgia Forum |
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Free Clinics Take Burden off Georgia Taxpayers By Donna Looper Ask any elected official in Washington or at the Georgia State Capitol and they will tell you that health care entitlements such as Medicaid, Medicare or children’s programs such as PeachCare are budget-busters.
Even Grady Memorial Hospital and other public hospitals in the state are hamstrung to stay open because the poor and uninsured are over utilizing their services.
In Georgia, the Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that 18 percent of state residents, or more than 1 million Georgians, don’t have health insurance. And that number is rising.
Taxpayer-supported programs can’t continue to do it alone. Instead, dozens of free health clinics such as the South DeKalb Center for Healthy Living in Lithonia, the Macon Volunteer Clinic and the Grant Park Clinic are providing a community safety net to help care for the uninsured.
That’s why a proposal before the state Legislature to spur more of these private-sector clinics is a win-win for taxpayers. It is a $2 million, one-time request to help fund the Georgia Free Clinic network.
The funds would be used to expand services at the more than 100 clinics that comprise the Georgia Free Clinic Network. The clinics offer free or sliding-scale primary care services. Monies would also be used to spur additional clinics in underserved areas of the state just like last month’s opening of Bartow Health Access for Cartersville-area residents.
The purpose is simple: help us in the private sector keep doing what we do best: expand our role in the health care marketplace so government and public hospitals won’t have to keep shouldering an-ever increasing burden to pay for health care for the uninsured.
Our free clinics such throughout Georgia are staffed with volunteer physicians, dentists, pharmacists, nurses and others as well as donated prescription drugs and other materials. They provide health care much more efficiently and with more personalized service. They provide primary care so the poor don’t get so ill they wind up in hospitals such as Grady with expensive aliments that could have been prevented.
For example, a study in one community found that a typical emergency room visit to diagnose and treat a sore throat was $270. A patient visit to a local free clinic instead cost $29, including medication.
Earlier this year, the State Auditor found that Georgia’s Free Clinic Network provided $200 to $400 million in care for 140,000 low-income, uninsured Georgians. That was a 25 percent increase in patients over 2005. The money went directly to patient care, unlike many public hospitals or government programs where tax dollars often get diverted toward administrative costs. Hospitals are beginning to hear the good news about our network of clinics. When the uninsured do use emergency rooms, staff often refer patients to our clinics for follow up care since we can do it cheaper and establish a relationship with the patients. The vast majority have diseases such as diabetes and hypertension.
These clinics are becoming so popular that they had to turn away an estimated 30,000 patients last year due to a lack of capacity. With a state grant to expand services and start additional clinics, we could serve 20,000 more uninsured with 86,000 additional patient visits worth $6.5 million. That’s a bargain-basement rate for the state of Georgia and a true cost-savings. We could also use the funds to initiate mental health services at network clinics. Surveys show the vast majority of patients are diagnosed with depression.
These clinics are the shining lights of community volunteerism that warm the heart. When I see the gratitude on the faces of patients who are unemployed, disabled or struggling to make ends meet, I know our network of clinics throughout Georgia must continue their mission.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. When it comes to taking care of the uninsured, we cannot continue to keep pouring money into government programs or shifting patients to overburdened hospitals. Instead, a one-time state appropriation to help expand the Georgia Free Clinic Network would not only be the right thing to do, but would be a tremendous cost-benefit to the state’s taxpayers.
Looper is executive director of the Georgia Free Clinic Network.
Mar 10, 2008 Georgia Political Digest.com
Free Clinics Take Burden off Georgia Taxpayers
Executive director of the Georgia Free Clinic Network
