Health Care Crisis In Collin County?

Representatives from a half-dozen area non-profit medical organizations convened Tuesday evening to discuss the growing need for indigent health care services in one of the state’s wealthiest counties.

Hosted by the Healthcare Committee of Collin County, a non-profit grassroots movement concerned about health care accessibility for the indigent and/or uninsured, the two-hour meeting at Plano’s Parr Library produced a unified opinion from its six person panel: Collin County indigent clinics are in desperate need.

Without exception, representatives from the clinics – most of whom operate within the confines of a severely limited budget and staff -- appealed for more cash, more in-kind donations, and more volunteers to meet increasing demand for services for those – both documented and undocumented – in need of medical assistance.

If the representatives were of one mind with regard to the dire need of fiscal assistance, they, too, were unanimous in their general lack of enthusiasm for myriad stipulations and restrictions placed on those clinics that accept county funding.

"I have a problem with the stipulations," said Cathy Reynolds, chairman of Frisco Cares Children's Clinic. "There are a lot of strings."

For fiscal year 2009, the Collin County Commissioners’ Court provided $199,954 of the more than $380,000 requested by roughly 12 clinics in the county.

County Judge, Keith Self, who heads the commission, has stated publicly that he would like to see the county grant program end.

HCCC has been meeting once a month at various Plano libraries since December. Barbara Walters, HCCC board member, said the meetings are open to anyone – county commissioners included. The Court has yet to send a representative, Walters said.

“I just feel like they don’t really believe there’s an indigent problem in Collin County, despite the growth,” said Sandy Dickey, executive director of the Children and Community Health Center of McKinney, an organization that stopped applying for county grant dollars because of what she considers over-zealous qualifying stipulations.

Even at 200-percent of the federal poverty guidelines, health care is untenable, Dickey said. “How are you going to buy health insurance on $20,000 a year?” she asked.

“We’re not talking about affording medical care,” said John Ernst, director of the Plano Adult Clinic, “even the rich can’t afford medical care. We’re talking about affording medical insurance. The only people who pay retail are the indigent – because they have to.”

Those who aren’t seen at the clinics eventually make it to area emergency rooms, a trip, the panel agreed, whose tab is ultimately passed on to the taxpayer.

The Commissioners’ Court refuses to provide clinics grant monies for the treatment of undocumented, or “illegal,” immigrants.

Richard Dodson, a co-chair of the Collin County Indigent Health Care Program, a task force selected by the Commissioners’ Court in 2006 to study indigent need, said the indigent issue “can’t be ignored.”

Dodson said political ideological squabblings have usurped an issue with a human face.

“Everybody’s looking for the Dream, for employment,” Dodson said. “If we’re going to employ [undocumented immigrants], then we have to provide medical services [to them].

“This isn’t about raising taxes,” he said. “It’s about a co-op between the private sector and the county to come up with a solution.”

A Commissioner's Court workshop addressing the issue of indigent care will be held June 15 at 6 p.m. at the Wylie City Hall. The meeting is open to the public.