As director of Tacoma/Pierce County Health Department, Dr. Anthony Chen is committed to improving access to health care for area residents. He discussed this during the Feb. 9 meeting of Tacoma City Council's Public Safety, Human Services and Education Committee.
In Nov. 2007, 72 percent of Tacoma voters approved passage of Proposition 1. It called upon the council to pass a resolution requesting state and federal lawmakers to enact legislation to provide health care for everyone.
Chen has done some research on how to achieve better access to health care for area residents. The resolution passed by the council called for convening a panel to recommend steps the city and private employers can take to improve insurance coverage.
The percentage of people under the age of 17 in Pierce County with no health insurance is small, just 1.7 percent. Since 1994, that figure for adults has ranged between 10 and 20 percent.
There have been several factors that have emerged since 2007. One is the downturn in the economy. Pacific Lutheran University's Wellness Clinic closed in 2009. Community Health Care stopped accepting new patients.
Chen said RotaCare Free Clinic, which is supported in part by Tacoma Rotary 8, was established in 2009. It provides free healthcare on Pacific Lutheran University campus one night a week. Patients are referred by neighborhood clinics. Chen said 95 percent of patients are Tacoma residents.
There is a clinic in Parkland near the PLU campus that offers care to lower income people. Chen noted that MultiCare and Franciscan Health System have been very supportive of such efforts to increase access to health care. "They have been incredible partners."
That particular clinic serves 40 patients a week. In 2010 it served a total of 1,220 patients. The value of that care is $129,000. Chen said there were 2,800 hours of care donated by medical providers.
One emerging factor has been clinics operated by Qliance Primary Care Specialists and similar businesses that offer unlimited visits for a monthly fee. Chen said some of these plans are affordable, perhaps just $10 a month, but they cover a limited amount of time if a patient needs to be hospitalized, around $1,000 worth of care. Chen said one day in a hospital can cost that much.
Chen said fields of health care that have a smaller profit margin, such as pediatricians, struggle to attract enough doctors. He said the trend in health care is to boost the profit margin by getting patients to have additional tests or X-rays. "Medicine is a business," he observed.
In 2009 Pierce County Project Access was started. This is a project of Pierce County Medical Society. There are doctors willing to donate some of their services for the poor, Chen pointed out. "Project Access allows for that," he remarked.
