Health Care Net Catches Anything But Health

by Michael L. McCray

The State of Ohio last year cut the financial assistance to single adults, some of these homeless.  While the state tried to leave a public health safety net in place the net is in poor condition and a public health threat to all.

If you call up the Cuyahoga County Ombudsman for Shelters & Hunger Centers Roy Love and are feeling well, he will direct you to Metrohealth System or the City of Cleveland Clinics for treatment.

If you are homeless Health Care for Homeless runs clinics at 12 locations, and has a “county wide mandate to provide services” according to its Director John McKinney.

There are also free clinics in Cuyahoga, Summit, and Lorain Counties.

While Cincinnati has a successful mobile clinic and several small clinics run by the Cincinnati Health Network.

The point is that around the state the access to a physician is still a reality.  If you are suffering from a cold, flu, headache, cuts, and other minor ailments you are still in pretty good shape around the State of Ohio.

We did not need general assistance, many may argue.  Everyone is fine and dandy and the state has saved a bundle.

However accessing the system does not mean that you will obtain the treatment for a medical condition.

After you have seen the doctor at the Metrohealth System you are out luck if you do not have the money for the prescription.  The doctor is free, the remedies are not.  When asked if an indigent person can receive medications from the City of Cleveland Health Clinic, the answer of a clinic worker was “you better have money.”

Health Care for the Homeless is very selective of whom they send to Metrohealth because they must pay for the service.  Everyone is looking for sample medications, terribly expensive, a lot of people cannot afford them.  “The fee they pay will cover testing and medication but not other needs” according Dr. Clarence Taylor, a ten year veteran with Health Care for Homeless.  I sent one man who was homeless who needed colon oscapthy and a month’s worth of medical supplies.

“We are referring a lot of people to the Free Clinic so they can get medications,” stated one Health Care for the Homeless employee.

“The biggest problem is getting these folk medications” said Doctor Peter Cabv?, Medical Director of the Free Clinic.  “Without the samples provided by drug representatives and the medical community we would be in trouble.”

“In Cincinnati we are having a lot of problems getting and keeping people on the mental health medications,” said Kate Bennett of the Cincinnati Health Network.

“It is also the same situation in Summit County” according to Janet K. Auman, R.N. of Summit County Free Clinic “We see a lot of 50 years olds caught in down sizing without any medical coverage, the situation is rough.”

“Our system is on the verge of collapsing” stated Marty Hiller, the Director of the Free Clinic.

Those in Ohio who have a chronic medical condition like diabetes, glaucoma, hypertension can qualify for Disability Assistance (DA).  The whole process takes about 60 days once the person obtains a letter of eligibility from a physician.

Most people are not aware of programs to assist them with emergency medication set up by drug companies and specific health concern associations for some medical conditions.  These are short-term solutions for some chronic conditions.

Many of the uninsured do not attempt to access the health care system at all because of an ignorance of the system, location of resources, or difficulty in navigating the requirement to receive subsidized care.  Those who are aware and understand how to access the system are frustrated by not being able to obtain the cure once a problem has been diagnosed.                Before Health Care for the Homeless was established “Many people were arriving in emergency rooms with far more serious conditions than need be” according to Dr. Taylor.  Health Care for the Homeless was established to unclog the system.

With the cuts in medical assistance making access or solutions more difficult we are returning to this situation.  The real danger in this lies in the increase in the number of people in this situation, the number of antibiotic resistant contagious diseases that are appearing, and the social indifference to suffering of the poor in America.

We have been a lucky nation in that the strange epidemics that have plagued other nations in close proximity to our borders have not appeared on U.S. soil, yet.  We can all rest assured however that once these perils take hold with our poor they will be very democratic in effect on the rest of the population.  Unless the health for all people in this nation reaches the same level of priority as a military defense, sooner or later the plagues will come.