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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Free clinics overwhelmed

As health care debate escalates, need rises and donations decline

Leila Fadel McClatchy

FREDERICK, Md. – One recent Monday, the line in the Church of the Brethren parking lot began to form at about 2:30 a.m. when a husband and wife arrived. They came almost eight hours early in the hope of seeing a dentist – for free.

They soon watched the headlights of other cars as they pulled into the lot. Some would-be patients laid out blankets and sat on the pavement to wait for hours so they’d make the top of the walk-in list to see a doctor or dentist at the Mission of Mercy traveling clinic.

By the time the clinic, a converted recreational vehicle, opened its doors and the church’s multipurpose room became a waiting room, a nursing station and a dental office with blue dividers and folding chairs, more than 100 people had assembled.

At the check-in table, new patients were asked one question: “Are you insured?”

The Mission of Mercy, a group of traveling clinics that circulates through Maryland, Pennsylvania, Texas and Arizona, is one of more than 1,200 free clinics across the nation that are feeling the effects of the economic downturn.

Their patient lists are growing as Americans lose their jobs and their health insurance, but as demand grows with rising unemployment, their donations are dwindling. This year, Mission of Mercy has $350,000 less than it did last year; it takes no government funds for its services.

“People are so afraid to give now, because they’re thinking they could lose their job next,” said Linda Ryan, the executive director of Mission of Mercy. “We’re squished because we have more people in need; we need to grow now more than ever – who knows what will happen with health care?”

Over the past year, free clinics across the country have seen a 20 percent decrease in donations and a 40 percent to 50 percent increase in patients, said Nicole D. Lamoureux, the executive director of the National Association of Free Clinics. Last year, the clinics the association represents – which largely have been excluded from the health care debate – treated 4 million people. This year, Lamoureux expects, they’ll serve some 8 million, 83 percent of whom come from homes in which at least one person works full time.

“Quite frankly, the need is so great at some point in time we’ll hit a place where we have to say we need to start cutting,” Lamoureux said. “We’d like to be a part of those discussions (on health care). We really need to make sure that this legislation gives the people we serve access to quality health care.”

On the outskirts of the nation’s capital in Silver Spring, Md., on a recent Sunday, the waiting room of the Muslim Community Center Medical Clinic was packed with uninsured patients. It, too, has grown almost 50 percent in the last year, and about 15 percent of the new patients are uninsured after losing their jobs.

Although the U.S. spends more on health care each year than any other nation, about 46 million people in America have no health insurance, according to the Census Bureau. While the number of uninsured Americans dropped from 2006 to 2007, indications are that the number has increased drastically since and will continue to rise as unemployment swells.

Of uninsured families, about 27 percent make less than $25,000 a year, according to the census survey. About 19 percent of families make $50,000 or more a year. The federal poverty line is $22,050 a year for a family of four.

Even those with insurance, however, aren’t safe from financial disaster when dealing with medical problems. More than 60 percent of bankruptcies are partly attributable to medical problems, according to a recent article in the American Journal of Medicine. Three-quarters of those bankruptcies were among the insured.

Many who come to Mission of Mercy and the Muslim Community Center clinic work 40 hours a week or more, but still can’t afford health care.

In the waiting areas of these clinics, most of the patients had no strong opinions on proposed health care changes; they don’t have the time or desire to rage at protests. They want to see a doctor without bill collectors showing up at their doors demanding thousands of dollars or having loan officers denying them car and home loans because of their bad credit, they said.

“It’s the richest country in the world,” Mohammed Munir said as he waited in the Church of the Brethren to see a Mission of Mercy doctor recently. Munir, a truck driver, lost his job earlier this year after relocating from California. “We should get health care.”

Dr. Mike Sullivan, a co-founder of Mission of Mercy, doesn’t think the government will ever solve this problem because it lacks the love and faith that he and the volunteers have, he said.

“There are so many people that need now,” he said in the back of the RV where he sees patients. “We were already pretty full before the economy fell apart.”