As a longtime community health care advocate, I speak often to student and health care groups about the system in the 1970s, when I got involved in creating a health center in Dorchester. The major condition that required the creation of health centers was the lack of primary care in low-income communities. These patients often were forced to receive their basic primary care, including immunizations for children and prenatal care, in emergency rooms.
That led many lower-income patients to delay care until it became critical. We saw the results of this in abysmal infant mortality rates and in poor child health, which resulted in higher failure rates in schools.
I usually get gasps of disbelief or horror when I mention these facts to the groups I speak to. It seems like something out of the Third World.
Therefore, it was shocking to hear Scott Brown, former US senator, speak on WBUR about the Trump inauguration and the repeal of Obamacare. “I think there’s plenty of alternatives,’’ Brown said, “and to have people think that people are going to die is really abhorrent. It’s inappropriate, and it’s not true. People can go into any emergency room, as they’ve done and continue to do, any time they want and they’ll get full coverage.’’
Going to the emergency room isn’t free. Hospitals charge a great deal of money for this care, and the cost of medical care is still the number one reason for bankruptcy in this country. This is why many people without insurance are reluctant to walk into an emergency room unless they feel deathly ill, which can result in far worse outcomes as well as catastrophic costs.
As we enter into the Trump administration, where making America great seems to be about returning to the 1950s, we should remember that those years also had a shocking and horrific system of care for lower-income Americans. Let’s hope we’re not on track to recreate that inhumane health care era.
Bill Walczak
Dorchester
The writer is the founder of the Codman Square Health Center and is currently the CEO of the South End Community Health Center.
