SPOKANE, Wash. — To bring attention and recognition to the importance of providing health care to all community members, the People’s Clinic at YWCA and the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile will host a one-day free informal event Tuesday, May 3, to provide information on health care options.
The event will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Comstock Room at the YWCA, located at
Today, 45 million Americans have no health insurance, including more than eight million children. Eight out of 10 uninsured Americans either work or are in working families. As the price of health care continues to rise, fewer individuals and families can afford to pay for coverage and fewer small businesses are able to provide coverage for their employees.
“Many people are unaware of their eligibility for low-cost or free health care coverage,” said Margaret Bruya, assistant dean for Academic Health Services at the WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing and co-founder of People’s Clinic. “Many uninsured children from working families are eligible for low-cost or free health care coverage. The purpose of Tuesday’s event is to inform uninsured individuals and families of their health care options.”
The event coincides with national “Cover the Uninsured Week” (May 1-8) activities (www.CoverTheUninsuredWeek.org), the largest nonpartisan campaign in history to focus attention on the need to secure reliable and affordable health coverage for all Americans.
The People’s Clinic and the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile are academic health service outreach programs managed and operated by the WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing.
People’s Clinic providers will be distributing low-cost insurance information and application packets to those in need of health insurance. In addition, the clinic will provide Basic Health and Department of Social and Health Services information and application packets and information on the People’s Clinic and Ronald McDonald Care Mobile services.
Nurse practitioners and representatives from clinic and Care Mobile will be available to discuss health care options, including low-cost health care through community health centers and clinics, help with prescription drugs, low-cost and free health care coverage through Medicaid and other programs, health care coverage for people with a chronic illness or disability and provide answers to legal questions about getting and keeping health care coverage.
According to a state-by-state report released April 27 by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 20 million working adults did not have health care coverage in 2003. The report, “Characteristics of the Uninsured: A View from the States,” was released to coincide with Cover the Uninsured Week and the beginning of a national campaign to focus attention on the issue of the uninsured. It found that in eight states, at least 20 percent of working adults are uninsured. In 39 other states, at least 10 percent of working adults lacked health insurance. Forty-one percent of those without health insurance were unable to see a physician when needed in 2003, compared with nine percent of those with health insurance. The RWJF study can be found online at https://www.rwjf.org/research/researchdetail.jsp?id=1882&ia=132.
The WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing is committed to making health care accessible for those who need it most. Traditional, mobile and satellite clinics, including People’s Clinic and the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile, provide health care and related services to underserved segments of the community in Spokane and Yakima. For more information about these and other health care outreach efforts, visit the WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing Web site at nursing.wsu.edu.
