June 2015 Health


Despite ACA, Thousands Show Up at Free Health Fair


BY VIJI SUNDARAM


Jackie Mason said she had been waiting for nearly four months to get an appointment with a primary care doctor. She enrolled in her insurance plan about a year ago after being uninsured for two years. More than once she considered going to the local hospital emergency room, she said, especially when she had episodes of dizziness she believed were triggered


by


her hypertension and diabetes. But she knew from experience that one visit to the ER could set her back by several hundred dollars.


“I go from welfare check to


welfare check and that money is barely enough to put food on my table or cover my rent,” said the 45-year-old African-American woman, who lives in a public housing project about an hour away from here. “By luck, I found out about this health fair.”


Mason was among more than


2,000 people who went to the ninth annual Free Health Fair co-sponsored by the City of Anaheim and


the


Anekant Community Center, May 29-31. This year, for the first time, organizers teamed up with Remote Area Medical (RAM), a Tennessee- based nonprofit that has been taking


its mobile clinics to cities across the United States since 1985.


health


Some of those who came had insurance


but, like Mason,


couldn’t cope with the wait time to see a doctor. Others lacked insurance, or had coverage that did not meet all of their needs, or were on plans where the co-pays were too high.


The line outside the cavernous


Anaheim Convention Center clearly indicated that despite the ACA, whose aim was to make health care accessible to all legal


American residents,


hundreds of thousands of people have fallen through the cracks.


By the time the three-day event


ended, organizers had provided a total care value of $337,188, according to RAM California.


More patients on Medi-Cal, same number of doctors


Mason, like program one-third of the


state’s population, is on Medi-Cal, California’s name for the health insurance


for low-income


people, known as Medicaid in the rest of the nation. She was able to get on to it, she said, when California opened the program to childless adults like her a year-and-a-half ago under the ACA.


Expanding the Medi-Cal program


has swelled its total enrollment to 12.3 million, an increase of 3.7 million people since the implementation of the ACA. But there has been no proportionate increase in the number of primary care doctors in the state’s Medi-Cal network,


a situation that


www.hamptonroadsmessenger.com


The Hampton Roads Messenger 7


health care advocates say is because of the state’s low reimbursement rate -- among the lowest in the nation.


“Medi-Cal is very difficult


to access,” said Dr. Jim Keany, an emergency medical care specialist and head of RAM California, who was among the more than 1,000 volunteers at the fair. “Because of poor payments, not many doctors want


to the ACA’ No one who came to the fair was


asked for an ID, or questioned about their immigration status or income level. Instead they were asked a simple question: What can we do for you?


The bulk of those who came to


the fair wanted to fix their teeth or get prescription eyeglasses. On all three days, every one of the 60 dental chairs RAM had provided was occupied from the time the fair began at 7 a.m. and ended at 4 p.m. The whirring sound of drills and cleaning instruments pierced the air.


RAM founder Stan Brock said


even many working Americans are in desperate need of dental and vision care, which are not adequately covered benefits for adults by Obamacare. Unmet dental needs can lead to serious medical conditions, he said.


“It’s a shortcoming of the ACA,”


observed dentist Dr. Ramesh Kothari, during a short mid-morning break.


The state agreed last year to


restore Denti-Cal, the dental program for its Medi-Cal patients that it had eliminated in 2009 for budgetary reasons, but only partially. It does not cover gum treatment, rear root canals, or partial dentures for one or a few


HEALTH FAIR PAGE 11 accept


Medi-Cal patients.” Dental care – a ‘shortcoming of


primary care close to home & health insurance enrollment


Our Mission Southeastern Virginia Health System, (SEVHS) provides high quality, comprehensive, affordable


health care and wellness services to all.


Operating for over 35 years, the Southeastern Virginia Health System (formerly PICH) is the premier community based health care initiative in Hampton roads for the insured, uninsured and under insured.


Now Accepting New Patients


East End Physicians 1033 28th Street


Newport News // 757.952.2160


48th Street Physicians 4714 Marshall Avenue


Newport News // 757.380.8709


Stoneybrook Physicians 15425-H Warwick Boulevard Newport News // 757.874.8400


Victoria Boulevard Physicians 3130 Victoria Boulevard Hampton // 757.952.0180


Main Street Physicians 157 N. Main Street, Suite A Suffolk // 757.925.1866


Town Center Physicians 10980 Buckley Hall Road Mathews // 804.725.9191


Virginia Beach Family Medical Center 940 General Booth Boulevard, Suite A Virginia Beach // 757.425.3610


Chesapeake Community Health Center 490 Liberty Street


Chesapeake // 757.228.1288


We Offer Community Dental Services Newport News // 757.928.3810 Suffolk // 757.942.1280


www.sevhs.org SVHS YourPlaceAd_10x7.75_Messenger.indd 1 5/28/14 1:44 PM


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16