Affordable care aim of health officials

August 23, 2011
by Debra Berry
Gannett (via Jackson Clarion Ledger)

 By the time the woman showed up at the Tutwiler Clinic in Mississippi on Friday, the masses under her arm and in her breast were so large doctors immediately called for tests.

The new patient had delayed visiting the clinic because she didn't have insurance, said Dr. Anne Brooks, the facility's medical director.

"That's common," Brooks said Tuesday, after speaking at a health care event linked with the upcoming dedication of a national memorial honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

She and other health care advocates are pressing to improve access to affordable care in rural communities and to get more physicians to practice in those communities.

"We survive on donations," she said of her $2 million-a-year program, which celebrated 28 years last week. "We need a doctor and we need money."

Brooks, who is an osteopath and a Roman Catholic nun, was among the speakers at the Martin Luther King, Jr., Health Equity Summit at Washington's Willard Hotel.

The two-day summit held by the Institute for the Advancement of Multicultural and Minority Medicine was one of several events leading up to Sunday's dedication of the King memorial. Hundreds of thousands are expected to attend the dedication.

King advocated for better access to health care for the poor and minorities, organizers said.

Brooks, who opened her clinic in 1983, has won awards and praise for her work in the Mississippi Delta. The clinic, which employs 30 people, serves five counties. Brooks also sees patients at nursing homes and makes house calls.

Education is a key part of the clinic's services, Brooks said. "We teach until we're purple in the face," she said.

Mississippi has a 21.8 percent poverty rate and the nation's highest rates of adult obesity (34 percent) and child obesity (21.9 percent), according to a report by Trust for America's Health, a public health research and advocacy group. It also has one of the country's highest rates of teen pregnancy.

Over the years, the clinic has expanded its services and offers dental, eye and podiatric care, mostly from volunteer doctors. Most clinic patients still can't afford health care.

"We've progressed - but we have a long way to go," Brooks said.

View the full story (some sites require registration)