by Donna Clark RN, Director
This has been a very busy month! As one volunteer opened for services this morning I was running late running to the bank and post office. Interviews were already in progress and the Insurance Navigator from Social Service was seeing clients. Suddenly I was approached by two volunteers who wanted me to help a client they had brought to the office. This lady has spent the last 15 years living in the woods and has remained away from society almost completely. Today she is terrified as she has found a lump that she is sure is cancer. The fact of her own immortality has hit hard and combined with the terrors that alcohol creates she is panicked.
She was able to remain reasonably calm as the social worker entered her into the insurance system but was ready to go straight to the Emergency Department thinking that they would answer her questions and take care of all immediately. As we explained to her that she would be seen and they would agree she had a lump, refer her to a primary care doctor who would then send her to a specialist she began to fall apart. She was going to have to slow down and wait for care. We talked and prayed with her promising to do all we could to move the process along as quickly as possible.
A call was placed to a Primary Care Provider and they will call back by Monday with an appointment date. We will have a Medical Assistance number by that time and she will begin to receive care. The point of this story is that the health insurance system has given people like her a chance to receive care quickly and in spite of her absence from society all of these years. Early treatment will save her life and save money to the taxpayers who help pay for the system. As you hear the negatives about the current health insurance program in our country please know it is saving the lives of the lost, the least and last of our community. Without it they would have no hope to receive the care that they needed. Please keep this person in your prayers.
James 5: 13-18
H.O.P.E. 