经济危机 美国人多上免费诊所

音频下载[点击右键另存为]
President Obama spent most of this week on the road, pitching his health care plan to the nation. His proposal to roll out a public insurance option has already met a lot of resistance in Congress. But it’s been applauded by many of those on the front lines of public health care, particularly in free clinics. ABC’s Steve Osunsami has this story of one clinic that can’t keep up with demand.

Say Ahh.
Ah...h.

Her patients call her an angel on earth.

You’ve got a lot of fluid under there.

For Sister Mary Trinita Eddington,

Are you still having your diet?
Oh, yes ma'am.

It’s simply about showing up.  At this Jackson Mississippi clinic, Sister Trinita has been providing free health care to the homeless and the very poor for more than ten years. Recently she has been very busy. (All right I need you to sign that form, please.)  Patients who have lost their jobs and their health insurance are flooding the clinic.

We know there is an increase when the economy is failing and they are very distressed.

Mazola Magee lost her health insurance in February.

How are you doing? I’m doing bad.

Don London still has his, but he is diabetic and his company plan no longer covers many of his medications.

Here are what they call underinsured.

Yeah, that's it.  haha... Shame to say.  But yes, that’s, that’s it.

The free clinics were once the safety net of health care, but with family insurance premiums costing thousands of dollars and deductibles as high as 2500, clinics nation-wide are seeing more families in need.

President Obama proposed a strengthened public health plan this week to provide alternative to  expensive private insurance.

If the private insurance companies have to compete with a public option, it will keep them honest, and it will keep, help keep their prices down.

It is a welcome relief for people like Daniel Chizen who was laid off from his job at a GM supplier a few months ago. When he was let go, the company offered him insurance he’d have to pay on his own.  But it was 800 dollars a month.

You know, I weren’t able to keep it; I weren’t able to pay it.
How much of your employment check would have to go to that insurance?
Everything.

Clinic physicians worried that patients who have lost their jobs and their health insurance are skipping preventive care and ultimately making matters worse and more expensive. Today’s cough they say is tomorrow’s pneumonia.

"What they do is they show up in the emergency room or in clinics, Sister Trinita says she will continue to give her patients the very best care, but with so many new patients treating them is a hard prescription to fill.

For Good Morning America, Steve Osunsami ABC News, Utica, Mississippi.