Huntsman tours centers, discusses health needs

OGDEN — Utah's community health centers want Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. to know that although they are always poised over the edge of a financial abyss, they contribute to the economy while taking care of the health concerns of the neediest residents.

In turn, Huntsman wants them to know that he values public health services, worries about health care for the poor and plans to think outside the box when it comes to providing care to uninsured and underinsured Utahns. He doesn't discount out of hand the thought of getting lower-priced medications from Canada, for example, he said.

"We ought to be thinking creatively," Huntsman said.

The governor spent Friday afternoon touring the Midtown Community Health Center in Ogden and then visited the Weber-Morgan Health Department. In both places, he discussed the unmet needs of Utahns who can't afford health care or health coverage.

"For years, basic, preventive and primary care have been short-changed," Dr. David Sundwall, Department of Health executive director, said. In spite of the fact that such care saves money.

The exchange came on a day when newly confirmed Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt was talking about a $2 billion appropriation (that's a $304 million increase, he said) to support community and migrant health centers. The federal goal is to have 1,200 new or expanded sites that would serve an additional 6.1 million people nationwide.

Community health centers are local, not-for-profit corporations that focus on primary and preventive care in low-income and medically underserved communities, funded in part by federal grants passed through state health departments. More than half of a center's board members must be patients who use the centers, said Bette Vierra, executive director of the Association for Utah Community Health.

Fees are based on a sliding scale with a $20 minimum.

Some 80,000 Utahns each year use the state's network of centers, among them 27,000 children and more than 4,500 senior citizens. The centers include programs for the homeless and for migrant and farm workers, as well.

Besides direct primary care services, the centers have set up three health-access programs in the state to help coordinate services and access to health care. For instance, an uninsured man who had an infection so severe that his eye needed to be removed asked Midtown's program for help. They found a surgeon and a hospital willing to donate their services and a company that makes prosthetic eyes that agreed to donate that afterward.