Thursday, May 01, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Care-free living

Local grassroots group demands affordable health care

By Larry Wills

Clark County's efforts to financially rescue University Medical Center are spurring more debate over health care for the uninsured. And, of course, how to pay for it.

Last week, just before the UMC Citizens Task Force was scheduled to study how to restructure UMC and its Quick Care clinics to stop the fiscal bleeding--the county hospital lost $38 million last year alone--a grassroots group held a press conference demanding that health care be expanded.

Ben Contine, a community activist and chairman of the group called Las Vegans for Affordable Health Care, insists that, despite the financial crisis, something must be done for the 20 percent of the Clark County population that has no health insurance.

"We've suffered financially, but in the long term we should ask what are the best policy decisions to ensure more people have access to health care," he says. "We're absolutely opposed to closing Quick Cares. People are going to continue to get sick. Quick Cares keep people out of the emergency rooms, treating infection before it turns into a huge problem."

County Manager Thom Reilly ordered two of the 14 clinics closed because of a low volume of business, but has not indicated any more will be shut down. Reilly also has included uninsured care on his agenda for the UMC Citizens Task Force and plans to provide that at three Quick Cares.

Providing indigent care, at least in part, may have aggravated the financial mess UMC is facing. Two years ago, the Quick Cares began accepting uninsured patients, a practice that was severely limited late last year as unpaid bills piled up.

Still, Reilly remains committed to finding a way to serve the uninsured, many of them working poor, if it's financially viable. Three years ago, before he became county manager, he spearheaded a consortium to broaden health care in the community. Since then, Public Health Service clinics have been expanded from one to four in various locations in the community.

Contine, whose organization consists of more than 20 business, community and neighborhood organizations, says there's a groundswell of support for expanding health care. "It was amazing the response," he says of a door-to-door campaign to gather signatures.

"There's a lot of fear out there," he says. "Even people with insurance worry they won't be covered. They don't have the same access to care that they did five years ago."

And, he says, the public perception of the uninsured, whose numbers have exploded since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, is just wrong. "There's a misperception that people are unemployed," he says. "The overwhelming majority are actually employed."

He says placing the entire burden on UMC is unrealistic and the community may have to get creative. "For companies that can't provide insurance, we have to find innovative ways, such as insurance pools."

That view is echoed by Irvin Hunt, administrator of the nonprofit American Employees Association, which provides limited coverage for small businesses. Hunt contends there are enough community resources in Las Vegas to provide for the uninsured. "I absolutely believe it," he says.

Contine is on the same track. "We need all segments of the community participating," he says.

Erik Pappa, Clark County's communications director, agrees that, as a communitywide problem, as many people as possible should have input. "We plan to have public hearings and focus groups," he says. "It's the most expensive public participation process I've seen in a long time."

But Pappa warns that UMC still must remain reasonably solvent. "We've got to pay the bills."

To contact Las Vegans for Affordable Health Care, call Contine at 595-5097. For more information about UMC Citizens Task Force meetings, mail to UMC Citizen Task Force c/o County Manager's Office, Box 551111, Las Vegas, NV 89155. Or e-mail to umcinfo@co.clark.nv.us.