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Uninsured, But Still In Luck

What Tompkins County offers its residents living without health insurance.

By Kara Cusolito

It all comes down to money.

In the United States today, millions of individuals live in poverty, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2005 survey. Forty-five million Americans under the age of 65 lack any form of health insurance at all. In Tompkins County alone, an estimated 10,000 individuals go without health insurance every day.

Esther Sackett, co-chair of the steering committee of the Ithaca Free Clinic, a clinic offering free health care to residents of Tompkins County, deals with the inner workings of local healthcare systems daily.

"It's kind of sad that it's a business," Sackett says. "But it kind of has to be."

Elizabeth Holmes, who works with the Health Planning Council of Tompkins County, says the number of citizens without insurance is high everywhere in the nation."So many people are uninsured," Holmes says . "A lot of people who work in low-wage jobs can't afford that big of a chunk missing from their paychecks every week."

Until the winter of 2006, health care was a major problem for the 10 percent of Tompkins County's population that is uninsured. The Ithaca Free Clinic, located at 225 S. Fulton Street in Ithaca, opened to somewhat alleviate these issues i n January 2006.

Sackett says the clinic's mission is to make proper healthcare and accessibility to medications more feasible for low-income residents of the area. Since opening, the clinic has served all uninsured individuals of all ages in the area, free of charge.
           
The clinic offers integrative health and wellness services to its patrons, Sackett says. It combines traditional medicine with complementary and alternative methods and also has a health resource library and occasional educational programs.
           
Sackett says the process of making the clinic a reality was a long road. It took ten years of dreams and fundraising and a year of serious active work to open the building to the public.
           
Still, several obstacles prevent some local residents from visiting ó for one, money. Though the clinic is generously funded by the county, it must rely fully on a volunteer staff, Sackett says . Oftentimes, volunteers will leave after a few weeks of service because of other obligations.
           
"Volunteer work is often the first thing people eliminate from their busy schedules," she says . "That's just the way it is."
           
Another obstacle for patients is the clinic's location and hours. The limited hours of operation ó from 2 to 6 p.m. Mondays and 4 to 8 p.m. Thursdays ó make it difficult for both residents and volunteers to find the time to go to the clinic. Its remote location in Ithaca makes a  long commute for residents of towns like Greene or Lisle ó who often have no form of transportation.
           
"In the future, we'd like to pull together a mobile clinic, so people all over the county could benefit from our services," Sackett says . "But really, it all comes back to funding."
           
The clinic is a project of the Ithaca Health Alliance, a healthcare co-op founded in 1997 to facilitate access to health care within the community. Members of the alliance are eligible for interest-free loans to help with specific expenses including some emergency procedures, dental care and preventative care. Members are also eligible for grants.
           
The clinic also participates in UrgentRx program sponsored by Kinney Drugs that provides low-income residents of Tompkins County with access to medications for "acute needs," Sackett says .

Urgent care, free of charge

Urgent Rx was introduced to the area in February. The program is a joint effort by the Health Planning Council of Tompkins County, United Way and Kinney Drugs in Tompkins County.

Holmes is also a program assistant for Urgent Rx. She says the program is designed to help provide uninsured residents with medications for urgent, acute illness. There is a list of about 70 medications that can be provided, including antibiotics and inhalers.
           
"This is not for chronic illness," Holmes says .
           
The program gives free generic medication to uninsured residents of the county who visit the Cayuga Medical Center, the Convenient Care Center in Ithaca or the Ithaca Free Clinic.
           
In the past year, 598 vouchers have been granted. A patient who is given a voucher must take it to one of three of the local Kinney Pharmacies, located in Ithaca and nearby towns Dryden and Trumansburg.
           
When a patient with no health insurance visits one of the two sponsored sites, doctors and nurses inform them about the program and can give them a voucher.
           
Holmes says Urgent Rx is still in its pilot stages, and she is working to collect information from its patrons. Though the response to Holmes' surveys has been strong—Holmes estimated a 95 percent approval rate—there are still flaws and room for improvement.
           
The program also provides patrons with information on similar programs, both local and federal, that work to assist the uninsured—many of which patients would be unaware of otherwise, Holmes says .
           
"I give out pamphlets on the Ithaca Free Clinic, Family Health Plus, Child Health Plus and Medicaid on a regular basis," she says .
           
One of the factors in the young program's success is the personal interaction involved. After a voucher is given, Holmes checks up on the patient to see how the process went.
           
"I have a very high connection rate. We get in contact with almost 70 percent of people," she said. "Usually with surveys like this, you just hope for 50 percent."
           
Holmes says the age demographics she has collected are somewhat surprising. Similar to the Ithaca Free Clinic, most of the patients using Urgent Rx are between 19 and 30 years old—an age bracket when many people do not have high-paying jobs and feel invincible to illness.
           
"These people are supposedly at the healthiest point of their life," she says . "But things still go wrong."

    

The Ithaca Free Clinic is a center where people who have no health insurance can get health care free of charge. The clinic is split into several rooms, with a waiting room, medical checkup rooms and a massage room.

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