Healthcare; Not A Luxury Item

No matter your stance on the health care debates being held country-wide, one thing is certain: insurance is expensive and far too many people are going without necessary care.

When deciding between immediate needs of shelter and food, or paying utilities and transportation costs to work, or for kids back and forth to school, paying the extra expense of health care can fall to the wayside.  This is especially dangerous for families and individuals who are on the brink of making ends meet, when one accident, one illness can mean the difference between paying bills or going into default, having electricity cut or even being put on the streets.  In 2007, 62% of bankruptcies were due to medical bills, a 49% increase since 2001, according to the American Journal of Medicine.  In 1981 only 8% of bankruptcies were attributed to medical bills.

At St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic, we care for 3,500 low-income or homeless patients who rely on our preventative and critical care.  In the coming year we anticipate this number vastly increasing, as state funding for Medi-Cal was cut by $323 million, and the Healthy Families program has stopped enrolling eligible children.  More than 12,000 children in San Francisco alone (942,000 state-wide) rely on Healthy Families for their regular check-ups, for emergency care, and medication.  In September disenrollment of these children will begin.

No matter our political stances, I hope we can all appreciate the need for change.  A system that perpetuates costly acute emergency care and puts affordable preventative medical care out of reach does not serve the individual, the family or the community as a whole.