Video Coverage of TCARE
Sunday, September 27th, 2009Check out videos posted on cnn.com about the TCARE clinic that took place in Houston on September 26.
News
Free medical care offered to more than 2,000 Houstonians
Saturday, September 26th, 2009
(Photo taken by Julio Cortez of the Houston Chronicle.) Elayne Hutchins, 47 of Bear Creek, thanks Dr. Mehmet Oz on Saturday. Hutchens has trouble with her liver, heart, and pancreas. "I need a miracle. I don't know if I'll make it to 50," she said.
By CINDY GEORGE HOUSTON CHRONICLE
(This article ran in the Houston Chronicle on Sept. 26, 2009.)
As her sweatpants pockets bulged with medicine bottles, a towering woman waited eagerly outside the Reliant Center.
Margo Graham, a 35-year-old heart patient, was one of the uninsured Houstonians who arrived before dawn for free medical care today in what may become the largest event of its kind in the United States.
Television physician Dr. Mehmet Oz and the National Association of Free Clinics are in Houston offering more than 2,000 people free check-ups, tests and minor procedures. The manpower is provided by more than 700 volunteers. Scenes from today’s clinic will become an October episode of The Dr. Oz Show.
Graham, a new basketball coach at The Village School, had triple bypass surgery four years ago. Her insurance coverage starts on Nov. 1.
She’s been stretching the prescriptions she has left — the blood thinner, cholesterol medicine and a blood pressure pill.
“Hopefully, I can get a prescription to last me until my insurance kicks in in November,” said Graham, a former center for the Washington Mystics who said she received free health care when she played overseas. “I’m just grateful that I have this opportunity.”
Inside Reliant Center, patients are greeted by two recreational vehicles converted to mobile emergency rooms. Behind the vehicles, PVC and cloth are arranged for rows of exam rooms.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, dashing around in dark blue scrubs, said he hopes that patients leave with a sense that someone cares about the uninsured and that there are places to go for free health care.
Oz called the more than 40 million uninsured Americans “a national catastrophe … but one that we can engage and actually embrace and probably overcome.”
Texas has the nation’s highest uninsured rate and one in every three Harris county adults lacks health insurance. More than 4 million Americans receive care from the nation’s free clinics.
“Part of the goal today is to make it clear that there are Americans here who will help those who need the help,” Oz said. “There are ways of supporting those who do not have health care coverage. We need to create a system where all of us can be part of it.”
The cardiac surgeon, who gained popularity as a regular guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show, also congratulated the hundreds of medical personnel who donated their time.
“Katrina … was the last time that the medical services of Houston were mobilized to this extent,” Oz continued. “We’re not going to cure all 2,000 people who have come today, but we are going to be able to provide continuity of care for everybody who comes here … so they can access clinics near them.”
Patients told stories of their barriers to health care: Insurance loss after layoffs, premiums that became too high to pay and being underinsured — having coverage, but not enough money to pay deductibles and co-payments.
Karen Coney was the first patient, arriving in the dark just before 5 a.m.
The Missouri City mother of seven has five minor children at home — all of whom have asthma.
“I wanted to make sure that I was first in line. I’m a single mom and I have a lot to do today,” said Coney, 47, an HISD substitute teacher who canceled her health insurance because she couldn’t afford the premiums. She’s having colon problems and hasn’t had an exam in a year.
“I knew I needed to see the doctor and I didn’t know where to go,” she said. “It’s an answer to prayer.”
Elayne Hutchens, brought a typed letter to Oz about her years of serious health problems, including a heart attack.
The 47-year-old’s liver has caused her belly to swell large enough to prompt pregnancy inquiries. She also has heart and pancreas trouble.
“I need a miracle. I don’t know if I’ll make it to 50.”
A technician performed an EKG and Oz listened to her heart.
“It was just wonderful,” Hutchens said. “He is going to be talking to my cardiologist on Monday regarding all my medical problems.”
Oz said some of the first few patients had serious health problems.
“Elayne was a good example of someone who had been around the health care system. She’s lucky in some ways because she’s been able to get help from some good doctors, but she’s got a complicated story and she’s just seeking help,” the doctor said after her exam.
Her also took a look at Coney.
“She’s working,” Oz said. “Although her kids are covered through a state assistance program, she doesn’t get coverage. And she’s got health problems — big health problems that need to be addressed.”
Many under 65 in Taylor Co. are uninsured
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009More than one in five people in Taylor County under the age of 65 are without health insurance coverage, according to U.S. Census survey data.
With 21 percent of residents uninsured, that puts the county slightly below the statewide uninsured rate of 24 percent, the country’s highest, according to estimates based on 2008 data.
Among 50 counties statewide included in Census estimates, Taylor County ranked 16th in having the lowest percentage of people without health care coverage.
Bell County, which includes Temple, ranked first, with 15 percent uninsured, while Hidalgo County ranked last, with 41 percent uninsured.
The 2008 version of the yearly survey was the first time that households were asked whether or not they had health insurance.
Scott Golding, executive director for Abilene’s only primary care clinic for the uninsured, Presbyterian Medical Care Mission, said he was initially surprised that the local rate was lower than the state figure.
But he said that such figures don’t paint a full picture of the health care landscape.
“In our mind, the issue is not whether or not somebody has insurance. The issue is whether or not they have health care they can afford,” he said.
In Abilene, like other places, emergency rooms don’t turn away the uninsured. But patients be can saddled with big bills.
“Hendrick does a fantastic job of taking care of those folks. It’s just a real inefficient use of the health care system,” said Golding, referring to using ERs for primary care.
Both Hendrick and Abilene Regional Medical Center did not respond to questions presented Tuesday about the percentage of patients who lack insurance.
Care Available
Larry Johnson, administrator for the Abilene-Taylor County Public Health District, said people who lack insurance coverage have options, but may not always take advantage of them.
“They don’t feel they have money to pay for it, so they don’t go to the doctor,” he said, adding that the health district provides primary care options to about 1,400 uninsured people annually.
Income limits for medical help can vary greatly depending on one’s circumstances.
For instance, a family of four must typically have a gross income limit of $428 monthly to receive Medicaid benefits, but exceptions are made in programs that seek to help pregnant women, said Bettye Gindratt, director of county social services.
Gindratt administers another program for indigent Taylor County residents, in which a family of four’s gross income cannot exceed $699 a month.
“The mission is to provide health care to the uninsured residents of Taylor County that are at or below 21 percent of federal poverty guidelines,” said Gindratt.
The county has seen “a significant increase in applications,” she said. To qualify, each of the 275 to 300 or so residents receiving assistance must go through an interview process.
“Normally we can get clients in within two weeks of the application. Now, we’re looking at three to four weeks to get them in the door for an appointment. We are just backed up.”
Taylor County contracts with Golding’s clinic to actually provide the care, and Golding said he is also seeing a large number of patients.
The Medical Care Mission schedules appointments a week in advance. By 9:20 a.m. Monday, those slots are booked, he said.
“It may extend to 9:40 on a slow day,” Golding said.
The people using the Mission’s services are changing, he said.
“We’re starting to see people more into that moderate income bracket that were being provided insurance by their employer. Now, through all kinds of cuts, that isn’t available,” he said.
Golding said college students are another group that’s increasingly making use of his clinic’s services, no longer under the umbrella of their parents’ plans because of reduced benefits.
Such changes began about two years ago, Golding said.
Public Opinion
An unscientific poll of people in downtown Abilene revealed that people’s estimates of the uninsured were very different from government figures.
Many guessed a much higher number than Census figures showed.
Sheila Richardson, 47, guessed that about half of Taylor County residents lacked health care coverage.
“I’m shocked,” said Richardson. “If we have only 21 percent, why do we need a public plan?”
Others also skewed high, pegging the rate at 40, 50, even 60 percent.
Some said they were just guessing and didn’t expect to be right.
But after hearing the 21 percent estimate, A. C. Alrey questioned the accuracy of the data.
“Every census we have people … that didn’t answer the survey,” said Alrey, who first guessed that 60 percent of Taylor County lacked any health care coverage.
Even after hearing the 21 percent Census estimate, Alrey said he thought 40 percent might be closer to the true number.
While Golding said local doctors are charitable in the area, he said people in the community should be concerned about emergency room medicine that leads to high bills for the uninsured, a scenario that “is a drag on the whole economy when you misuse community resources like that.”
Sometimes the Mission has struggled to find money to pay its two staff doctors, two pharmacists and four nurses. Hendrick Medical Center provides a building rent-free.
“If we had four full-time providers and support staff … we could probably address the entire uninsured population in this service area. But it’s a funding issue,” Golding said.
The uninsured too often don’t seek care, allowing a condition to become more serious, Johnson said, emphasizing that help is available for many people.
But sometimes, the diagnosis of a serious condition can be the very thing that makes help run out.
“If there’s no program that has the funds to pay for that condition … then that’s the situation where that person will probably go without care,” said Johnson, sighing. “That’s just the way it is.”
