Shot in the arm for tri-county
A new tri-county initiative promises health care reform that both liberals and conservatives can embrace.
It doesn't use tax dollars. It ensures low-income people access to medical care. And it is expected to reduce what insured people ultimately pay to cover the uninsured.
The initiative, coordinated by Trident United Way, has received a $750,000 three-year grant from the Duke Endowment. The United Way will help find additional local funding, and all four local hospital systems, free and government-supported clinics and other health care providers will deliver services.
Such collaboration in a competitive area could make the Lowcountry a model for other areas of the country. So far, 35 entities are participating.
Numerous not-for-profit and for-profit health care groups and individuals have tried for years to address the problem, often unknowingly duplicating services and compromising health care outcomes.
Access Health Tri-County Network, as the program is being called, will coordinate all these efforts to make sure they share the load of providing for the uninsured.
That would be good for the medical community.
When the network is up and running, likely early in 2011, uninsured patients should find the care they need in a more efficient and effective way. (See Dr. Casey Fitts' column on today's Commentary page.)
That would be good for the patients and their health prospects.
When poor patients get proper care, they tend to be healthier and more employable, need fewer free medical services and make fewer visits to emergency rooms.
That would be good for the insured. Estimates are that more than a third of health insurance premiums go to cover the medically uninsured. Indeed, the United Way estimates that the network could save an average of $1,000 a year for each patient who participates. So if, some day, all of the uninsured were to participate, the savings could be $150 million.
The reality is that we will always have poor people who cannot afford insurance, and as the tri-county area continues to grow, health care needs will grow too.
Access Health Tri-County Network has a formula that could address the financial and medical dilemma that poverty presents. Its success would be a triumph for the Lowcountry.
