EDITORIAL: With clinic's closing, care for uninsured hit again.(Editorial) - The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre, PA)

Jun. 24--TIME IS RUNNING out for Interfaith Health Clinic patients.

Until Thursday, resident doctors provided by the Veterans Administration in conjunction with Geisinger South Wilkes-Barre hospital will staff the Wilkes-Barre facility.

But the clinic, which serves people without or with insufficient health insurance, could close after that because the VA will no longer have doctors to send there. The internal medicine residency program that provided staff for Interfaith has been discontinued, reported Correspondent Dawn Zera in a story on Tuesday.

Despite a cry for help from the clinic, which is located in St. Stephen's Episcopal Church on South Franklin Street, no other doctors have officially signed on to help.

The callous among us might scoff at the clinic and its patients' plight. Get a job, they may utter. Pay for your own doctor visits.

However, 15 percent of people are uninsured, according to the Census Bureau. And not all of those people are unemployed. Many of their employers don't offer insurance or they can't afford the premiums.

By failing to support clinics such as Interfaith, the community is making it more difficult for these people to scrape by or justify going to work.

Other communities have found a way to provide health care to the uninsured. According to The News-Press in Fort Myers, Fla., for a $10 contribution, the poor and uninsured in Collier County can see a doctor, have lab work done, get free medication and, if necessary, schedule a visit with a specialist.

Reporter Jennifer Booth Reed wrote in a recent story that the Neighborhood Health Clinic refuses government aid. It's made possible through grants, private donations and volunteers. Some 500 people work there with only five paid staff members.

The people who run the Interfaith Health Clinic aren't asking for 500 volunteers.

They just need a few doctors.

Why is this clinic in Florida thriving while one of ours is about to close?

The cynics among us will scoff at our concerns. They'll say, those people should find another clinic if this one closes.

It's easy for someone who earns a decent wage to drive across town. But for someone who can't afford a car, that inconvenience could create a bigger problem.

Can't get to the clinic before work?

Skip work, then.

Or forget about the doctor's appointment.

An illness, left untreated, grows more serious by the day until it results in a costly emergency room visit.

Who picks up the tab then?

The patient, who's barely getting by on minimum wage?

Not likely.

Don't delude yourself into thinking that clinics such as Interfaith, if you're not using them, aren't your problem.

The compassionate person realizes that it's society's responsibility to ensure that everyone receives adequate health care.

And for the rest of you, who focus more on dollars and cents?

Next time you complain about skyrocketing health care costs, think about that uninsured person heading to the emergency for a problem that could have been easily solved at a clinic that shuttered its doors for no good reason.

In the end, the rest of us are paying those hospital bills.

The callous among us might scoff at the clinic and its patients' plight. Get a job, they may utter. Pay for your own doctor visits.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Times Leader

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