Community Health Free Clinic - Cedar Rapids, Iowa

CHFC Newsletter - November 1, 2006

Dear Clinic Friends:

As president of Community Health Free Clinic’s board of directors, writing this letter provides a double opportunity: to provide a brief update for you and to offer “thank you” whether your role is volunteering in the Clinic, giving financial or in-kind gifts or being a trusting patient who needs the free services offered.

Community Health Free Clinic (CHFC) requires many volunteers, a small staff, a board of directors and multiple donors working as a team to deliver free medical and dental care. Free care is needed by a growing number of uninsured and underinsured people. In 2005 alone, 1.6 million and in the past six years, 6 million Americans were added to the list of 46.6 million now without health insurance. Those most likely to be without health insurance are employed and between the ages of 19 and 64. Premiums for health insurance increased 87% over the last decade. Numbers of employers offering health plans is steadily declining while co-payments and deductibles are increasing. Clearly, our national health care system fails for many. Unpaid medical bills are a leading cause of bankruptcy.

Zip codes for the 14,180 patients currently registered in the Clinic exceed 100. When computerized demographic data was analyzed by volunteer systems analyst Terry Lamb, we learned the Clinic is not serving significant numbers of patients from outside Linn and our seven contiguous counties. We learned 98.4% of patients were from East Central Iowa, 1.3% from the rest of Iowa and only 0.3% from outside Iowa. Since 2004, 3,000 new medical patients and 1,300 new dental patients have appeared each year seeking care. In fiscal year 2005-2006, the Clinic delivered 29,624 medical services and 2,964 dental services. By utilizing the Clinic’s “Prescription Assistance Program” and adding medication purchased with your contributions plus donated drugs more than $4,693,500 worth of medicine was distributed free to those who would otherwise go without: for some, going without is fatal.

In fulfilling our fiduciary responsibilities, the first audit of CHFC finances is underway with Clifton Gunderson, LLP serving as auditor. The board of directors, with help from its advisors, is finishing a new Strategic Plan for 2007-2010 under the leadership of Director Tom Reed. With such uncertainty in our sick national health system, strategic planning is a challenge.

Now, are you ready for some really good news? Dr. David Muller, an ophthalmologist, has volunteered to organize and staff a free Eye Clinic as a new CHFC service. Options to incorporate space in the lower level of the Clinic building to house this Eye Clinic are under discussion. Additional volunteer ophthalmologists, optometrists and optical technicians will be recruited to bring needed eye care to patients who otherwise must go without and risk blindness. Efforts are underway to add more preventative medicine, screening activities and educational classes.

I believe some level of basic health care is a right, not a privilege! CHFC’s mission to provide access to medical and dental care in east-central Iowa is dependent upon your gifts of money and/or in-kind donations. Lack of an adequate number of volunteer primary care physicians and dentists remains the Clinic’s current most serious threat.

William B. Galbraith, MD

President, Board of Directors.

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Mission: To provide Medical and Dental care to the uninsured and under-served
of East Central Iowa through model Community Partnerships.

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