New Democrats believe that covering
the uninsured not only includes
providing access to emergency and catastrophic care services in times of dire need, but also making access to preventive care available. After years of debate on the merits of achieving universal health coverage, 48 million Americans are still in need of health insurance coverage and better access to care.
An innovative step toward fulfilling this need has been taken in Massachusetts, lead by State Sen. Marc Pacheco. The idea is to draw on the services of medical, nursing, and allied health students, along with retired medical professionals and military reserve medical personnel, to provide primary and preventive health services for the uninsured. This health services corps -- called HELPMASS (Health Education Learning Partnership of Massachusetts) -- is supplemented by support services from students in non-medical fields. Colleges and universities contribute to HELPMASS by providing academic credit for participating students, and current health professionals can get continuing education credits for joining.
Volunteers for HELPMASS are involved in a variety of community-based health services, including screenings, immunizations, and education. The first HELPMASS site, the Taunton Student Health Corps (TSHC), quickly drew help from local doctors and nurse practitioners to supervise and train student participants from seven area colleges and universities. Reflecting HELPMASS' success in marrying community service with public health concerns, the Taunton project has received more than $500,000 in AmeriCorps grant funding since the program began that has provided living stipends and post-service scholarships for full-time participants. Almost 90,000 Greater Taunton residents have been served, with many senior citizens evaluated for hypertension, hyperglycemia, and medication compliance. Thousands more have been assessed for health insurance eligibility via an outreach center set up by TSHC.
AmeriCorps has also given support to a similar health services corps program in Utah. The Association for Utah Community Health (AUCH) is a nonprofit organization that provides services to the uninsured. It works with national service members in AmeriCorps and a cooperative known as the Medically Underserved in Utah (AMUU) with 18 sites in the state. The effort has provided education for 840 people with diabetes just this year. And in the last 18 months more than 6,500 people have received much-needed prescription medication via donation programs operated by pharmaceutical companies, saving the health center and its patients more than $328,000. In addition, more than 800 local health care providers logged 900-plus volunteer hours of service. The program has expanded by greater than 50 percent during the 2004-2005 AmeriCorps program year.
Another important AmeriCorps-based health project is Community HealthCorps, a partnership of the National Association of Community Health Centers, the Corporation for National Service, and community health centers across the country. The focus of Community HealthCorps is assuring the provision of preventive and primary health care to medically underserved populations and communities. Today, some 600 HealthCorps members work at 100 sites spread out through 18 states. The sites are placed in a wide range of underserved areas, from the inner city areas of San Francisco and Berkeley, California to rural communities in Colorado, Idaho, and Maine.
Health services initiatives utilizing volunteers can also involve non-health care professionals in a unique position to promote better practices. A small nonprofit group, Prostate Net, has signed up 800 barbers nationwide to provide their customers with first-hand information about prostate cancer, which kills black men more than twice as often as white men.
The health care discussions that barbers have with their customers are not limited to prostate cancer. Joe Harrington, a prevention leader at Chicago's Rush University Medical Center explains: "This opens the door to talking about all-around preventive health care. We talk about what factors you can change. You can't change your race or your age, but you can change your lifestyle. Once we get people to a doctor, then they can also get screened for high cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes." Participating barbers receive educational briefings at one of 57 local medical centers participating throughout the country and brochures from the National Cancer Institute.
Of course, some of the most interesting convergences of both health care policy and civic engagement have come in the process of confronting the new challenges created by our nation's quickly aging population. The Progressive Policy Institute has proposed creating a Boomer Corps, in which a large-scale national service initiative targets the coming wave of baby boomer retirees could meet critical needs.
First, the Boomer Corps would bring recent retirees into civic projects focused on the needs of the old and infirm in their community. This will help usher in a system in which younger retirees serve the needs of older community members and then, as they age, are in turn served by the new class of recent retirees that take their place in these civic programs.
Additionally, the proposal would increase the number of elder boomers serving in civic projects focused on raising the educational achievement of America's youth. This will help ensure that our country has the skilled workforce and strong economic growth it will need to support our existing old-age institutions in the decades to come.
Community-based initiatives are crucial to increasing access to health care for the uninsured and improving the health and well-being of older Americans. Preventive care treatment can stave off the need for costlier medical procedures later in life. Vaccines and immunizations, blood pressure screenings, dental services, mammograms, and other services must be made more available to those who are otherwise not receiving them.
Association of Utah Community Health (AUCH)
www.auch.org
AUCH program with AmeriCorps and the Medically Underserved in Utah
www.auch.org/programsservices/americorps.html
"Act Establishing the Health Education Learning Partnership of Massachusetts," Amendment to Massachusetts Senate Act 2048, September 1995
http://www.ndol.org/documents/HELPMASS.pdf
Community HealthCorps, the National Association of Community Health Centers
http://www.nachc.com/client/documents/Fact%20Sheet%20-%20Community%20HealthCorps%202007-08%20(Revised).pdf
Prostate Net
www.prostate-online.org
Marc Magee, "Boomer Corps: Activating Seniors for National Service," Progressive Policy institute, January 2004
http://www.ppionline.org/documents/Boomer_Corps_0104.pdf
Kari Lydersen, "Cancer Effort Enlists Barbers," The Washington Post, March 28, 2005
www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A5416-2005Mar27
Michael Castleman, "The Doctor in the Mirror," Blueprint, Spring 2000
www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?contentid=1051&kaid=111&subid=138
David B. Kendall, Jeff Lemieux and S. Robert Levine, "A Performance-Based Approach to Universal Health Care," Progressive Policy Institute, November 15, 2002
http://www.ppionline.org/documents/Universal_Healthcare_0103.pdf
Hon. Marc Pacheco
State Senator
Room 312-B
State House
Boston, MA 02133
(617) 722-1551
Mpacheco@senate.state.ma.us
Terri A. Sullivan, RN
Program Director
Taunton Student Health Corps
Morton Hospital and Medical Center
88 Washington Street
Taunton, MA 02780
(508) 828-7054
David B. Kendall
Progressive Policy Institute
4021 Heritage Way
Missoula, MT 59802
(406) 543-2265
(772) 679-0652 (fax)
dkendall@ppionline.org
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