“Going bare” is risky in more ways than one. Go without clothes in public, as a Weld County priest did, and you risk arrest and trial. Go without health insurance, and you risk chronic illness and even death. As the nonprofit organization Families USA reported in “Dying for Coverage in Colorado,” an estimated one working-age Coloradan dies each day due to lack of health insurance.
“Diana” is a case in point. After emergency surgery to remove a malignant glioblastoma, the 55-year-old Douglas County woman was no longer able to work and lost her health insurance. She applied for Medicaid and Social Security Disability, but her tumors reappeared before the lengthy processes for assistance were approved.
Fortunately for Diana and other uninsured people in the south metro area, a unique nonprofit is available to provide an essential safety net. Doctors Care found a primary care physician for Diana, a surgeon who was willing to perform the second surgery she needed, and a highly specialized neuro-oncologist to provide ongoing care. The program has literally saved her life.
Doctors Care was founded in 1988 by the Arapahoe Medical Society to serve low-income families in Arapahoe, Douglas and Elbert counties. In its first year, it served 700 low-income people. Twenty years later, Doctors Care is recording an average of 600 patient visits each month. And the need is spiraling upward, with Doctors Care seeing a 10 to 20 percent increase in needy patients monthly.
Like Diana, the majority of people who lack health insurance are employed. Shannon Cardellina, development director for Doctors Care, points to studies showing that 70 percent of the uninsured are in the workforce, or are the dependent of a worker.
America has a public safety net for the elderly and for children who meet certain qualifications, and Medicaid covers very low-income people (defined as a family of four living on less than $25,000 a year). But there’s a big gap between those who can afford health insurance and those making too much to qualify for Medicaid.
And even Medicaid is less than a perfect solution. The paperwork it requires is time-consuming, frustrating and highly erratic. A low-income applicant can be rejected six times and then can be approved for assistance on the seventh try.
And the reality is that sometimes people die while they wait for coverage. In addition, people who are disabled and unable to work have to wait two years before they can even apply for Social Security Disability assistance.
All this helps explain the need for Doctors Care.
Children and people under 30 years who lack health insurance are seen by physicians who volunteer at the Doctors Care Kids Clinic in Littleton. Older patients are referred to one of 525 physicians who see them in their offices. Patients pay a small, sliding-scale fee for care based on their income.
When an uninsured patient needs hospitalization, expensive medications or specialized tests, Doctors Care turns to its five partner hospitals: Swedish and Sky Ridge medical centers, and Littleton, Porter and Parker Adventist hospitals. Last year alone, the hospitals provided more than $3 million in care to needy Doctors Care patients.
The hospitals, physicians, staff and volunteers who support Doctors Care hope that someday the U.S. will develop a system where people don’t have to “go bare,” and where Doctors Care will no longer be needed. America’s unwieldy, unfair, overly complicated and frustrating health care system has to change. But even optimists doubt that will happen soon.
In the meantime, you can support Doctors Care during this, its 20th anniversary year, by donating at .
