Debbie Elliott, NPR News, Author at ��ϳԹ�� News

As Focus Shifts To Jobs, The Uninsured Seek Solutions

Debbie Elliott, NPR News — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Nurse practitioner Mary Mackie reviews a patient’s file with a health counselor in the temporary site of the New Orleans Faith Health Alliance. (Debbie Elliott/NPR)

The national debate over health care appears to be taking a back seat to jobs creation – but the problem persists for people who have jobs but no health insurance.

As part of our series “Are You Covered,” we check back in with Fernando Arriola, a contractor in New Orleans who can’t get health coverage. He’s adopted an unconventional approach to medical care and is now working to set up a clinic for the uninsured.

Going Abroad For Cheaper Care

Winter (what there is of it in New Orleans) is the slow season for Arriola’s construction firm. So late last year, he took care of a nagging medical problem.

“I had a minor surgery,” he says. “[It] wasn’t anything big – just had a growth removed. So I went to Guatemala. It cost me a grand total of $80, including the doctor visit. I was able to save some money. I couldn’t even pay for the doctor visit over here.”

Video Profile on Fernando Arriola

Arriola is a naturalized citizen who has called New Orleans home for 40 years. But his regular doctor these days is in his native Guatemala. So when he goes to visit family, he gets care and stocks up on his blood pressure medicine.

First Denied, Then Disappointed

The 58-year-old self-employed businessman gave up his health coverage after Hurricane Katrina to save money when times were tough. When he tried to reinstate the policy, he was denied. Arriola had hoped Congress would allow people like him to buy into the Medicare system a little early.

“See, I’m willing to pay for what I am getting,” Arriola says. “That’s not the point. It’s just that I cannot even get it.”

He’s frustrated that politicians can’t seem to agree on a fix.

“It’s a mess,” he says. “I don’t know that they can do anything.”

Hope For The Uninsured

For his part, Arriola has been trying to do something locally by serving on the board of directors of a fledgling health clinic for uninsured workers: the New Orleans Faith Health Alliance.

At First Grace United Methodist Church in the Mid-City neighborhood, a construction crew is transforming Sunday school classrooms into exam rooms. The full clinic won’t be ready until late spring, so for now a small, windowless choir room serves as a makeshift exam room.

Patient Lee Hardy, who has been uninsured since Hurricane Katrina, speaks with nurse practitioner Mary Mackie at the New Orleans Faith Health Alliance. (Debbie Elliott/NPR)

Nurse practitioner Gwen George is taking Lee Hardy’s blood pressure. It’s a little high. He tells her he was diagnosed with high blood pressure five years ago, before Hurricane Katrina.

Hardy is a morning show producer for a local AM radio station that does not provide health insurance. He had hoped Congress would create a public health plan.

“People think that it’s for other people out there that don’t want to work and people who are just lazy bums,” Hardy says. “I stand before you as living proof that that’s not the case. I mean, I work hard.”

But he hasn’t had coverage since the storm. “The job … that I did have health insurance with was gone. So you can mark it down to Aug. 29, 2005,” he says.

And it’s been that long since he’s seen a doctor, even though his previous job was as a marketing director for a home health care agency.

George says Hardy is typical of the clinic’s patients. Most have chronic health problems, like high blood pressure or diabetes, and have gone for years without care. Katrina devastated the city’s health care system, including Charity Hospital. Even today, she says, there are few treatment options unless you wait for hours at a free clinic.

Construction workers convert Sunday school rooms into exam rooms at the New Orleans Faith Health Alliance, a fledgling health clinic for uninsured workers at First Grace United Methodist Church in New Orleans’ Mid-City neighborhood. (Debbie Elliott/NPR)

“And when you have a job, you really can’t wait 10, 12 hours to be seen because you’ll no longer have your job,” she says. “And so they’re really forced to have no care at all, or a place like this where they can get care.”

Since November, the New Orleans Faith Health Alliance has been seeing patients three half-days a week, addressing a mere fraction of the need in this city, where so many work in industries that don’t offer coverage – like construction and hospitality.

‘The Reality Of New Orleans’

Clinic director Luanne Francis says there are about 80,000 uninsured workers in the New Orleans metro area.

“We are specifically focused on serving these people,” Francis says, “because we believe these people are falling through the cracks and go a long period of time without seeing a provider.”

But it’s not a free ride. Patients must join, or become members by paying a fee based on their income. And they pay for each visit.

When Lee Hardy emerges from the exam room after an hourlong consultation, he calls the clinic “a blessing.” He says he’ll be recommending it to friends and colleagues.

“A lot of people I know are employed and not insured,” says Hardy. “That’s the reality of the New Orleans that we live in, particularly post-Katrina.”

The New Orleans Faith Health Alliance has signed up 15 members so far. And the newest is Arriola, who says the clinic will help him with routine matters such as his blood pressure. But he’s still concerned about major medical issues.

His plan for now? “Pray that nothing happens,” Arriola says.

At least not until he’s 65 and qualifies for Medicare.

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Facing Aging Without Health Insurance

Debbie Elliott, NPR News — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:00:00 +0000

This story comes from our partner

Fernando Arriola spends his days keeping track of four or five construction projects, and his nights praying for good health. The New Orleans home builder is one of the 46 million people in this country who don’t have health insurance.

Four years ago Arriola, 58, bought a friend’s contracting business, just as New Orleans was starting to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. He named it New Beginnings Enterprises.

“It was a new beginning for me; it was a new beginning for the city; it was a new beginning for a lot of people we were working with,” he says.

And business has been good. He does mostly residential work, like the quaint mother-in-law cottage in the Garden District where his crew is laying tile and putting on the finishing touches.

Making A Living, But Not Enough For Insurance

More on the Uninsured

“Are You Covered?”

Arriola makes about $50,000 a year and says he enjoys working for himself. But what he’s missing is the comprehensive health coverage he had at his former job as a sales manager.

Ever since he’s been self-employed, Arriola has been on a health insurance roller coaster. Initially, he bought a standard policy with a $1,000 deductible to cover his family. Then, when business slowed down and money got tight, he decided to temporarily drop the coverage. When he tried to reinstate it, he could only afford a catastrophic plan.

“I was paying $900 a month for a $5,000 deductible that would cover nothing until I hit that $5,000. So I was paying in essence $15,000 before I had one penny covered. And that was too expensive,” Arriola says.

So he dropped that coverage, only to have second thoughts. And when he tried to get it back, he was denied even the expensive catastrophic policy. Arriola doesn’t know exactly why, but he acknowledges that he and his wife both have high blood pressure and are approaching 60.

“Insurance is nothing more than just a business. And they try to limit their liabilities. So where there’s an older person, they don’t want to cover it,” he says.

Aging Without Coverage

Maria Arriola doesn’t think it’s fair that after years of paying for coverage and not having many claims, now, when they are starting to have health problems, they can’t get insurance.

“There’s nothing you can do about that. As you get older things don’t work so well, so…” she says.

The Arriolas did buy a policy for their two daughters, ages 22 and 16. But Fernando and Maria are uninsured. They pay for doctor visits and prescriptions out of pocket.

View Related Video

If something major comes up, Arriola says he would leave the country for medical services. Arriola is a naturalized citizen and has lived in New Orleans since 1970. But last year, he traveled to his native Guatemala for arthroscopic knee surgery. It cost him less than $1,000.

“Over here [it] would cost me thousands. They have just as good of doctors as they have over here. Most of them graduated from here,” he says.

Not Waiting For Congress To Fix

As for the debate on Capitol Hill over health care reform, Arriola takes a businessman’s approach to the issue: Open up the marketplace, he says, and create a national playing field so consumers will have more options.

But he does not have faith that Congress will come up with a fix because of partisan politics. So, in the meantime, he’s working to do something locally as a member of the board of directors for the New Orleans Faith and Health Alliance. The group is trying to start a health clinic in unused classroom space at a midcity church. Patients would pay based on their income.

“The purpose is to be able to provide the working uninsured medical services. There is definitely a need. I’m a perfect example of it,” Arriola says.

The alliance hopes to start providing care this fall. Arriola plans to sign up. In the meantime, he prays that nothing serious happens. The way the system works now, he says, he’d have to experience a major calamity to get coverage.

“I would have to go into the hospital, I would have to lose my house, I will have to lose all my savings, lose everything for the government to be able to help me. So 40 years of work, 40 years of struggle has to come to nothing. I have to be totally destitute in order for me to be able to get some help.”

Arriola says he doesn’t want anybody to give him anything. He just wants to be able to afford health insurance.

“There has to be a way,” he says.

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Democrats Get An Earful On Health Care

Debbie Elliott, NPR News — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 14:53:00 +0000

This story comes from our partner

Marsha Trotter from Pike County, Ala., expresses her concerns to Alabama freshman Rep. Bobby Bright at a town hall meeting. The retired teacher said she fears that new health care plans would require her to meet with a government board to discuss end-of-life options. “Now that’s my life and my business, and I don’t want the government in it,” she said. (Debbie Elliott/NPR)

Freshman Congressman Bobby Bright (D-AL) is spending the August break navigating the lush green backcountry of his south Alabama district. He started Wednesday with a “meet and greet” at Sister’s Restaurant in Troy over a vegetable plate and fried cornbread.

Constituents Speak Out

But the chitchat quickly turned from the fine southern food to the health care proposals before Congress. Retired Air Force Officer Bob Lambert doesn’t want a single payer plan.

“We have the best health care in the world. I have friends in Canada that have called me and said, ‘Don’t you dare go into this system because, you know, if I’ve got a prostate problem, I can’t even get to see my doctor in six months.’ I’m telling you, Mr. Congressman, don’t let it happen,” he said.

He told Bright it’s not that the nation doesn’t need to change the health care system. “I’m saying we don’t need the government running health care,” Lambert said.

That’s been the message this week for Democrats all over the country. Some have been heckled and booed by unruly crowds. Some lawmakers are now having their town halls via telephone. And even Blue Dog Democrats who oppose the current legislation haven’t escaped the conservative wrath.

Not Party Line

About 150 people crashed Alabama Democrat Parker Griffith’s news conference in Huntsville on Wednesday. They demanded to be heard.

“Are you afraid to have a town hall meeting?” asked one man. “No sir – I’m not afraid of anything,” Griffith replied and proceeded to answer questions for 90 minutes. He emphasized that he has been fighting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s agenda.

Bobby Bright (D-Ala.) (Debbie Elliott/NPR)

“Well, let’s see: I voted against the stimulus, I voted against cap and trade, I voted against the bailout of the banks. Every major bill that has come before us that expanded government, I voted against it,” Griffith said.

And he promised to do the same when it comes to health care. All three of the Democrats in Alabama’s congressional delegation – Griffith, Bright and Artur Davis (who is running for governor) – oppose the bills proposed in Congress.

Still, voters want to express their concerns. More than a hundred people waited to hear Bright at the town hall in Goshen, population 300.

Bright is the first Democrat to hold this House seat in more than four decades. But on many issues, he’s more in line with the Republican Party than with national Democrats. Abortion, for example:

“Whatever plan is out there – number one, I won’t support it if it supports abortion because I’m against abortion. That’s the way of life down here that we are used to. And being a Southern Baptist deacon, I feel that way very strongly,” Bright told the Goshen voters.

Worried Seniors

There was no heckling here. Just a room full of worried seniors.

“What I keep hearing is you will be required – required – to meet with a board to discuss your end-of -life options. Now that’s my life and my business, and I don’t want the government in it,” Marsha Trotter said.

Bright explained that that wasn’t in the bill and warned voters that special interests have been trying to distort the health care debate. “Who can we trust?” one man asked. It was a hard question to answer.

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As Focus Shifts To Jobs, The Uninsured Seek Solutions

Debbie Elliott, NPR News — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Nurse practitioner Mary Mackie reviews a patient’s file with a health counselor in the temporary site of the New Orleans Faith Health Alliance. (Debbie Elliott/NPR)

The national debate over health care appears to be taking a back seat to jobs creation – but the problem persists for people who have jobs but no health insurance.

Going Abroad For Cheaper Care

Winter (what there is of it in New Orleans) is the slow season for Arriola’s construction firm. So late last year, he took care of a nagging medical problem.

Video Profile on Fernando Arriola

First Denied, Then Disappointed

“See, I’m willing to pay for what I am getting,” Arriola says. “That’s not the point. It’s just that I cannot even get it.”

He’s frustrated that politicians can’t seem to agree on a fix.

“It’s a mess,” he says. “I don’t know that they can do anything.”

Hope For The Uninsured

For his part, Arriola has been trying to do something locally by serving on the board of directors of a fledgling health clinic for uninsured workers: the New Orleans Faith Health Alliance.

Patient Lee Hardy, who has been uninsured since Hurricane Katrina, speaks with nurse practitioner Mary Mackie at the New Orleans Faith Health Alliance. (Debbie Elliott/NPR)

Nurse practitioner Gwen George is taking Lee Hardy’s blood pressure. It’s a little high. He tells her he was diagnosed with high blood pressure five years ago, before Hurricane Katrina.

Hardy is a morning show producer for a local AM radio station that does not provide health insurance. He had hoped Congress would create a public health plan.

But he hasn’t had coverage since the storm. “The job … that I did have health insurance with was gone. So you can mark it down to Aug. 29, 2005,” he says.

And it’s been that long since he’s seen a doctor, even though his previous job was as a marketing director for a home health care agency.

‘The Reality Of New Orleans’

Clinic director Luanne Francis says there are about 80,000 uninsured workers in the New Orleans metro area.

“We are specifically focused on serving these people,” Francis says, “because we believe these people are falling through the cracks and go a long period of time without seeing a provider.”

But it’s not a free ride. Patients must join, or become members by paying a fee based on their income. And they pay for each visit.

When Lee Hardy emerges from the exam room after an hourlong consultation, he calls the clinic “a blessing.” He says he’ll be recommending it to friends and colleagues.

“A lot of people I know are employed and not insured,” says Hardy. “That’s the reality of the New Orleans that we live in, particularly post-Katrina.”

His plan for now? “Pray that nothing happens,” Arriola says.

At least not until he’s 65 and qualifies for Medicare.

This article/insurance/uninsured-seek-solutions/">article; first appeared on KFF" rel="nofollow">">KFF Health News and is republished here under a

/?republication-pixel=true&post=31502&ga4=G-J74WWTKFM0" style="width:1px;height:1px;">

Facing Aging Without Health Insurance

Debbie Elliott, NPR News — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:00:00 +0000

This story comes from our partner

Four years ago Arriola, 58, bought a friend’s contracting business, just as New Orleans was starting to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. He named it New Beginnings Enterprises.

“It was a new beginning for me; it was a new beginning for the city; it was a new beginning for a lot of people we were working with,” he says.

And business has been good. He does mostly residential work, like the quaint mother-in-law cottage in the Garden District where his crew is laying tile and putting on the finishing touches.

Making A Living, But Not Enough For Insurance

More on the Uninsured

“Are You Covered?”

Arriola makes about $50,000 a year and says he enjoys working for himself. But what he’s missing is the comprehensive health coverage he had at his former job as a sales manager.

“Insurance is nothing more than just a business. And they try to limit their liabilities. So where there’s an older person, they don’t want to cover it,” he says.

Aging Without Coverage

Maria Arriola doesn’t think it’s fair that after years of paying for coverage and not having many claims, now, when they are starting to have health problems, they can’t get insurance.

“There’s nothing you can do about that. As you get older things don’t work so well, so…” she says.

The Arriolas did buy a policy for their two daughters, ages 22 and 16. But Fernando and Maria are uninsured. They pay for doctor visits and prescriptions out of pocket.

View Related Video

“Over here [it] would cost me thousands. They have just as good of doctors as they have over here. Most of them graduated from here,” he says.

Not Waiting For Congress To Fix

“The purpose is to be able to provide the working uninsured medical services. There is definitely a need. I’m a perfect example of it,” Arriola says.

Arriola says he doesn’t want anybody to give him anything. He just wants to be able to afford health insurance.

“There has to be a way,” he says.

This article/news/uninsured-profile-npr/">article; first appeared on KFF" rel="nofollow">">KFF Health News and is republished here under a

/?republication-pixel=true&post=21368&ga4=G-J74WWTKFM0" style="width:1px;height:1px;">

Democrats Get An Earful On Health Care

Debbie Elliott, NPR News — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 14:53:00 +0000

This story comes from our partner

Constituents Speak Out

But the chitchat quickly turned from the fine southern food to the health care proposals before Congress. Retired Air Force Officer Bob Lambert doesn’t want a single payer plan.

He told Bright it’s not that the nation doesn’t need to change the health care system. “I’m saying we don’t need the government running health care,” Lambert said.

Not Party Line

About 150 people crashed Alabama Democrat Parker Griffith’s news conference in Huntsville on Wednesday. They demanded to be heard.

Bobby Bright (D-Ala.) (Debbie Elliott/NPR)

Still, voters want to express their concerns. More than a hundred people waited to hear Bright at the town hall in Goshen, population 300.

Bright is the first Democrat to hold this House seat in more than four decades. But on many issues, he’s more in line with the Republican Party than with national Democrats. Abortion, for example:

Worried Seniors

There was no heckling here. Just a room full of worried seniors.

This article/news/npr-conservatives-at-town-halls/">article; first appeared on KFF" rel="nofollow">">KFF Health News and is republished here under a

/?republication-pixel=true&post=20782&ga4=G-J74WWTKFM0" style="width:1px;height:1px;">

Debbie Elliott, NPR News, Author at ��ϳԹ�� News

As Focus Shifts To Jobs, The Uninsured Seek Solutions

More On The Uninsured

Video Profile on Fernando Arriola

Facing Aging Without Health Insurance

More on the Uninsured

Democrats Get An Earful On Health Care

As Focus Shifts To Jobs, The Uninsured Seek Solutions

More On The Uninsured

Video Profile on Fernando Arriola

Facing Aging Without Health Insurance

More on the Uninsured

Democrats Get An Earful On Health Care

Debbie Elliott, NPR News, Author at ���ϳԹ��� News

As Focus Shifts To Jobs, The Uninsured Seek Solutions

More On The Uninsured

Video Profile on Fernando Arriola

Facing Aging Without Health Insurance

More on the Uninsured

Democrats Get An Earful On Health Care

Related Audio

As Focus Shifts To Jobs, The Uninsured Seek Solutions

More On The Uninsured

Video Profile on Fernando Arriola

Facing Aging Without Health Insurance

More on the Uninsured

Democrats Get An Earful On Health Care

Related Audio

Debbie Elliott, NPR News, Author at ��ϳԹ�� News