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March 22, 2007

Local state lawmaker studies health needs

By Susan Redden

sredden@joplinglobe.com

State Rep. Ron Richard did a tour Thursday as a volunteer at the Community Clinic of Joplin as part of an effort, he said, to gather information that can be used in writing a new state health-care plan.

The Missouri House soon will begin work on MO HealthNet, a health-care plan proposed by Gov. Matt Blunt.

The clinic serves residents who need medical care and have no health insurance. The state plan will be aimed at providing a “health-care home” for many Missouri residents who do not have a medical provider or regular source of primary medical care.

Richard, of Joplin, said Michelle Ducre, executive director of the clinic, had visited him in Jefferson City to discuss health-care needs, “and I wanted to come here to talk with her and her people to make sure we can draft a program where people don’t fall through the cracks.”

The new program is to replace Missouri’s current Medicaid program in 2008.

Ducre said she likes provisions of the plan that call for participants to have access to a health-care provider who will know them personally, and focus on wellness by providing access to checkups and screenings.

“A lot of our challenges here are chronic diseases that could be prevented if people could get tested, and then make some lifestyle changes,” she said.

Doris Carson, a registered nurse at the clinic, agreed and said diabetes “is a huge problem locally.”

“And then it affects their kidneys and their eyesight, and so many other things,” she said.

Ducre and Richard said giving participants in the program a place to go for health care will keep them from having to go to emergency rooms, where costs are much higher.

Gayle Thornberry, of Joplin, said she is on disability, and the Community Clinic is the only place she can go for health care.

“I have asthma, and I went to the hospital last week,” she said. “They said I need to come here.”

Many of those served by the clinic are people who work but are not getting health insurance through their jobs, Richard said.

The plan being proposed by the state would increase the number of people who can get health insurance by combining resources to lower insurance costs, offer incentives to employers who provide health insurance, and pool the purchasing power of the uninsured to help them buy insurance at the lowest cost.





Incentives



Rep. Ron Richard, who is chairman of the House Job Creation and Economic Development Committee, said the Quality Jobs Act that went into effect last year requires employers who are getting state incentives to pay for at least 50 percent of their employees’ health-insurance costs.

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