Uninsured face trouble

By BONNIE ADAMS



WILKES-BARRE - The recent demise of a low-income health-care program from lack of federal funding has caused panic among some uninsured clients, according to one official.

Gary Smith said "1,200 individuals and families" in Luzerne and Lackawanna counties lost Healthy Northeast Access Program services as of Tuesday.



He said one client who had open heart surgery requires $900 a month in prescriptions. Smith said officials are trying to find an alternative health-care plan for him and many others.

"The clients are devastated," said Smith, the former program's community relations coordinator. The non-profit group based in Scranton had helped area uninsured to receive health and dental care for the past three years.

Smith said most clients are "working poor" who did not have employer-provided health benefits, could not afford to buy health insurance elsewhere or were not eligible for traditional medical assistance.



To help people find physicians they could afford, the access program worked with four partners in two counties: the Rural Health Corp., Wyoming Valley Family Practice Residence Program, Scranton Primary Health Care and Scranton Temple Health Center.

Smith said the funding shortage is because of the federal government shifting about $20 million from such health-care programs to help fund a prescription drug program for AIDS/HIV patients.



Smith said the Healthy Northeast program, which had received about $1 million a year, was not successful in obtaining grants to continue its services.

Marywood University graduate student Erica Sheahan, 22, of West Pittston had been enrolled in the program, but now has no medical or dental coverage. When asked what she will do, she said, "pray to God that I'll be fine until I graduate and get a job."

She said the possibility of needing health care is always in the back of her mind and she could not afford a prescription if she needed it. "I'm kind of in a tight spot financially," she said. Sheahan is a social work intern at the Family Service Association in Wilkes-Barre.

Smith said the state's Insurance Department's AdultBasic health care program for low income adults might be an option for some left without care. The state program has age, income and other eligibility requirements.



Pennsylvania Insurance Department spokeswoman Melissa Fox said there is a statewide waiting list of 92,140 for the AdultBasic program.