NYT: Health Care for All, With Obama Down the Street

[Pirate Smile]

Health Care for All, With Obama Down the Street


Many patients at the Portland Community Health Center are recently arrived immigrants.

By DAN BARRY
Published: April 1, 2010

-snip-
“You’re going to come back in a week,” Ms. Andel said, as her patient headed for the door, finger bandaged, cheeks concave, looking older than his 53 years. “O.K., James?”
Mr. Hierl gave a hesitant nod. Soon he was out on Park Avenue, where a line was forming outside a brick bandbox called the Portland Expo. The reason: President Obama was to speak there in the afternoon about new health care legislation that, among other things, will provide a huge increase in money — $11 billion — to community health centers like this one.

Across the country, more than 1,200 of these centers are providing treatment to low-income patients who would otherwise linger in expensive emergency rooms. The law is intended to reduce the burden on Medicaid and help the centers serve 20 million more people.
So the day progressed. On one side of the street, Obama aides scurried, the police blocked off traffic, and people waited in the sun, holding signs that said “Thank You” — though by lunchtime, hundreds were chanting the opposite. And on the other side, uninsured and underinsured people sought care, beginning with a man who saw little reason to eat.

A year ago, there was no Portland Community Health Center, though for years the city had been seeking federal money for a center that would provide care regardless of income or insurance. One that would reach the many new immigrants and refugees — from Rwanda, Iraq, Congo — who are finding their way to this southern Maine hub; save money; offer help.
Then, last year, the city received $1.3 million in stimulus money to open a community health center. It created a board, hired a staff, and found some vacant but tired space in a building on Park Avenue. On Nov. 2, the doors opened.

-snip-
More important than aesthetics is the staff. It includes three nurse practitioners, a registered nurse, a social worker, two medical assistants, and a pediatrician and a doctor who come once a week. An eligibility specialist is also on hand to help clients navigate a health care universe nearly confusing enough to require hospitalization.
Patients without insurance pay on a sliding fee scale that is made possible by Medicaid reimbursement. For example, if they earn $10,830 or less a year, which is the usual case here, they pay $3 a visit.
So far, this community health center has seen 750 patients who, employees say, would otherwise have gone to the emergency room or gone without treatment. Half have no insurance. Many are Mainers, but just as many are recently arrived immigrants who often bear the mental scars of war. Interpreters are part of the everyday life here.
Ms. Schreck said the new legislation means many good things for this center — including, perhaps, a dental clinic in the unused space at the back of the office. “We hope,” she said.

-snip-
But Ms. Andel, 31, one of the three nurse practitioners, had little time to gawk. After the man who would not eat came another man, fresh to Portland from an Indian reservation several hours away, who was struggling with the anxieties of heroin withdrawal. After him, two women with back pain, then a man from Burundi who needed to undergo a physical as part of his path to earn citizenship.
Meanwhile, outside and just down the street, the last gasps of the yearlong argument about health care legislation found breath in chants of “Nobama!” and “Yes We Can!”
Here were people complaining that they didn’t like health care rammed down their throats (the preferred terminology for opponents). Here, too, was Kathleen Stokes, the president of the community health center’s board. She was standing in line with her ticket, telling anyone who would listen of the benefits of community health centers.

-snip-
On Wednesday, there was a free tax clinic in the Portland Expo; on Friday, the Maine Red Claws basketball team will play the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. But right now the Portland stage belonged to a victorious president who began his speech with “Hello, Portland!”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/02/health/policy/02land.html?hp

A good article for anyone who says the Stimulus/Recovery Act didn't do anything and the Health Care Law wont either.

[zalinda]

1. Yes, if we all move to Portland n/t

[gcomeau]

2. Yeah, because Portland is the *only* place in the whole country...

...where either Stimulus funds were spent or legislation passed by Congress applies. Everyone knows that!

:eyes:

[uponit7771]

3. There are 2 main CHCs and 2 satelitest that I know of in the DFW area

[Phx_Dem]

6. Clinics are being opened across the country as part of HCR.

"Across the country, more than 1,200 of these centers are providing treatment to low-income patients who would otherwise linger in expensive emergency rooms. The law is intended to reduce the burden on Medicaid and help the centers serve 20 million more people."

[smalll]

4. How in hell has Baucuscare been transmogified into "Health Care for All" ---

Health Care for All? Sounds like some kind of "symbolic" public option, if you ask me.
Health Care for All? -- some mythical pony, rather. Neo-feudalism, on the other hand? That's just the sort of incremental pragmatism that we can expect. :shrug:

[Pirate Smile]

5. kick