Doctors support changes in health insurance

The impact of uninsured patients is felt across Augusta, from higher premiums for those who can get health insurance to military reservists without health coverage who aren't fit to fight overseas, a panel of hospital executives said Thursday.

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Speaking to the class of Leadership Augusta - a civic leadership program, the health leaders said the community, the state and the nation need to come together to address the growing problems. The number of uninsured nationwide rose to nearly 45 million last year, the Census Bureau estimated.

In Georgia, there are 1.4 million, or 16.4 percent, with no coverage, which would equate to more than 77,000 for the area.

"Unfortunately, the hospitals are bearing the cost of this," said Shayne George, the CEO of Doctors Hospital.

This has consequences beyond providers not getting paid. Costs are shifted to those who can pay, and their insurance companies, which drive up premiums

"All of your premiums are at the rate they are because of the uninsured," said Don Snell, the CEO of MCG Health Inc.

It might even have an impact on the military - with upwards of 45,000 National Guard or reservists activated from this region, 8 percent had medical or dental problems that could have kept them from being deployed, said Brig. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, the commander of Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center.

Without that health care coverage, many working uninsured don't seek treatment until they reach a critical point, said James Lyle, the executive director of Richmond County Medical Society Project Access, which coordinates a volunteer system of doctors to care for the uninsured.

"Many times, unfortunately, they end up in the Emergency Room with something more serious than it could have been if it had been treated outpatient," Mr. Lyle said.

Project Access has about 200 physicians who typically volunteer to take one patient a month, with the hospitals supplying tests and other procedures and the Augusta Commission kicking in $400,000 a year to cover the cost of drugs.

"(But) right now I have more people calling me than I have physicians to see them," Mr. Lyle said.

Reach Tom Corwin at (706) 823-3213 or tom.corwin@augustachronicle.com.

To help

Richmond County Medical Society Project Access is in critical need of physicians who will volunteer to see uninsured patients. For more information, call Project Access at (706) 733-5177.

--From the Friday, October 15, 2004 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle