Another editorial in my paper on the demise of healthcare for the uninsured in my area

[w8liftinglady]

Yes, there ARE caring professionals.

http://www.thedailylight.com/articles/2011/04/01/opinion/doc4d963f6ea3d47138650337.txt

Let’s not become ‘Hope-less’
Published: Friday, April 1, 2011 4:11 PM CDT
Dr. Jeff Kosoris
Hope Clinic

Congress has its hands full these days trying to keep the country running and cut expenses…but an ill-advised component of budget cutting has unfortunate consequences for all of us, especially Hope Clinic in Waxahachie.

Hope Clinic has many friends, supporters, and patients in Ellis County. The Clinic needs every one of them (you!) to become lobbyists and advocates to our Congressional delegation to restore funding for Community Health Centers in the upcoming budget negotiations. As you may have read in the Daily Light recently, Hope Clinic has had its federal funding slashed by nearly 75 percent from about $54,000 to $14,000 per month. This cut comes after Hope Clinic was asked to become a Federally Qualified Health Center, which meant qualifying for federal funds to greatly expand services and operations. The federal funds provided a third of operating costs before the funding cut, and the loss of federal funding is catastrophic.

The Clinic has literally become a lifeline to Ellis County, greatly relieving hospital emergency rooms to treat true emergencies by providing primary health care for the indigent, Medicare and Medicaid covered patients, uninsured and insured patients. I could go on and on about services, outreach, education, and most of all tremendous cost savings, but suffice to say that if the Clinic can no longer operate, thousands of patient visits will have to be allocated to an already stressed health care delivery system and emergency rooms, or simply end without care being received. This would mean a decline in health as patients forgo care, leading to loss of jobs for many of those affected.

Congress has cut the annual community health centers budget of $2.19 billion by over half to less than a billion. At the new level, $17 million was lost in Texas in March alone, affecting 190,000 patients. Over 500 jobs will be lost if the cuts are not restored and at least a dozen health centers statewide will close. Newer centers like Hope Clinic would be on the chopping block.

These cuts halt expansion of high quality community-based health care and are disastrous to patients with diabetes and heart disease, pregnant females, children, and patients with mental illness. Hope Clinic provides high quality medical care, medication, specialist referrals, lab studies, dental care and mental health care and much, much more. A new building is set to open in April to further enhance delivery of care.

Community heath clinics like Hope get a huge return on every dollar available and are staffed by incredibly dedicated health care providers and support personnel truly dedicated to their work; I can attest to how inspiring it is to watch the Clinic in action. Two billion dollars is a lot of money, but the breakdown on a national scale attests to the “bang for the buck” with average patient visit costing taxpayers less than two dollars, according to the National Association of Community Health Centers. In addition, the two billion spent on health centers provides annual savings to the health care system of $24 billion!

Compare that to the well over one trillion dollars budgeted for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year. We all know how wisely each of those dollars is being spent.

Please contact Senators Kay Hutchison and John Cornyn, and Representative Joe Barton and request they restore funding for health centers. Often they only hear from those wanting to cut everything due to concern over the deficit. The fact that cutting health center funding will actually RAISE expenses to us, the taxpayers, has been overlooked either accidentally or intentionally in the haste to look fiscally responsible. Maybe members of Congress ARE suddenly becoming responsible stewards of our money…and if you believe that, well, perhaps you should consider a consult with the mental health department at Hope Clinic.

You may easily contact our members of Congress:

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison

hutchison.senate.gov 214-361-3500

Sen. John Cornyn

cornyn.senate.gov 972-239-1310

Rep. Joe Barton

joebarton.house.gov 972- 875-8488

We really do need a flood of contacts to our Congressional delegation. On behalf of Hope Clinic, thank you for your time and support.

Jeff Kosoris D.D.S. serves as the board president for Hope Clinic in Ellis County.

[MineralMan]

1. I hope you have some success.

Here in Minnesota the new Republican-controlled legislature has just passed a budget that makes deep, deep cuts in health care for our poorest citizens. I'm afraid I'm going to have to direct my efforts there. Maybe in 2012, we'll be able to reverse the control of the legislature. I think we can, but it will require even the disgruntled Democrats to turn out and help elect the legislators who lost in 2010. I hope we can convince them to show up.

[Scuba]

2. Physicians, more than anyone, would love a single-payer system....

...which would result in a huge cut in their overhead costs and eliminating the #1 non-health related item on the table when they meet their patients.

Getting more physicians, and other health professionals, into the spotlight will help our cause.

[Mimosa]

3. They're onboard now.

My best pal is a family practice MD of a couple of decades experience. He didn't used to be for single payer, but came 'round a couple of years ago. :)

[Scuba]

4. So get him to speak up in your community. Physicians are highly respected, and certainly experts...

...on healthcare billing, much to their displeasure.