wfn.org | UMNS# 05101-Soaring health costs turn churches into primary care

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Soaring health costs turn churches into primary care providers

Feb. 17, 2005	 News media contact:   Matt  Carlisle * (615) 742-5470*
Nashville {05101}

NOTE: This report is accompanied by a sidebar, UMNS story #102.

A UMC.org Feature
By Amy Green*

In a downtown neighborhood of Wichita, Kan., where the elderly make
their homes alongside the working poor, churches know the need that many
residents have for basic health care.

So four years ago, a group of churches joined with local health
providers to organize annual health fairs offering inoculations, blood
screenings and other services. Some recipients were so grateful they
were close to tears.

The fairs take place before the start of the school year and offer a
free alternative to the inoculations the health department gives for a
small price.

"If you are a family that's got four or five kids, you can't afford
that, especially if you're living paycheck to paycheck," says the Rev.
Geniese Stanford of New Covenant United Methodist Church, which will
host this year's fair. "They would be almost in tears because they could
not have immunized their four or five kids."

With health care costs skyrocketing, churches increasingly are the
primary care providers to many sick Americans. Noting Jesus was a
healer, ministry leaders say the role fits with their work, since
spiritual health so closely depends on well-being of the mind and body.

"The problem has penetrated into the middle class," says Dr. G. Scott
Morris, associate pastor of St. John's United Methodist Church in
Memphis, Tenn., and executive director of the ecumenical Church Health
Center, which offers medical care to the working uninsured. "Many people
do turn to the church when they're sick and they have nowhere else to
go."

Some 27 million Americans were uninsured when Morris founded the center
in 1987. Today, that number has ballooned to 45 million. Many work for
businesses that save by skipping health benefits or hiring part-time, he
says. Others can't afford their employers' health plans or suffer from
ongoing illnesses insurers refuse to cover.

A United Methodist organization has responded with a prescription drug
card offering discounts to all 8 million U.S. members. The cards,
launched a year ago with health supply discounter DestinationRx, have
been distributed to thousands.

Congregations are responding, too, by holding health fairs and clinics
with fellow neighborhood churches, hospitals and other medical and
religious organizations. The ministries are a good outreach, says the
Rev. Mearle Griffith, president and chief executive officer of the
United Methodist Association of Health and Welfare Ministries, a network
of health care organizations and sponsor of the drug discount card.

"The opportunity to get one's health checked is something that draws a
wide spectrum of people," he says. "It's a natural way to get people
through the doors."

The Church Health Center is the nation's largest faith-based,
not-for-profit health clinic. With a small staff and more than 400
volunteer doctors, the clinic treats patients for free or at a low cost.
Many of the doctors treat patients in their own offices. The clinic also
offers a wellness center with exercise machines for physical therapy and
weight loss regimens, and it provides a low-cost health plan to small
businesses that can't afford one for employees. The clinic in Memphis
has been a model for 15 others across the country and is funded by local
churches.

Memphis, one of the nation's poorest big cities, is in a state that-like
many-is grappling with escalating health costs. The clinic offers
seminars and training to help churches build their own health
ministries.

Morris urges churches to step up.

"From our perspective, this is something no church can ignore," he says.
"If you're not working on a health care ministry, then you're ignoring
what a third of the Gospel is about."

The health fairs started by three churches-West Side United Methodist
and two churches that have since merged to form New Covenant United
Methodist Church-offer inoculations, blood screenings to check for
cholesterol and sugar levels, vision and hearing checks, blood pressure
checks and AIDS tests. The fairs are funded by the churches, the United
Methodist Health Ministry Fund and the Bishops' Initiative on Children
in Poverty. A local hospital and medical clinic supply health
practitioners.

Now the 150-member New Covenant Church is applying for a grant to offer
a weekly walk-in clinic with volunteer health practitioners. The
immunizations have been especially beneficial to families, Stanford
says. Without them, high school students couldn't play sports and
younger children couldn't go to day care, forcing parents to give up
jobs to care for them.

"There was a glimmer of hope for all the people who came in because most
people want to take good care of themselves, and it's a terrible burden
not to be able to take care of your children, much less yourself," she
says. "Some people are shamed by using public assistance. This way,
there was no shame."
# # #
*Green is a freelance journalist in Nashville, Tenn.

News media contact: Matt Carlisle, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5153 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.

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United Methodist News Service
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