Trying To Get Ahead Through Hard Work

Meet Mario, a father of three living in Southeast Dallas. Because he works 60 hours a week, he doesn’t meet the requirements for Medicaid, but doesn’t have enough income to purchase private insurance, which his workplace doesn’t offer anyway. Mario has diabetes, but doesn’t get regular exams. Instead he goes to the emergency room during flare-ups.

FACT: At one Dallas hospital, 57% of its visits were indigent cases and 35% of those visits were for primary care diagnoses. The indigent are able to get immediate relief from imminent health concerns, but are not receiving consistent, preventive primary care.

Mario’s wife and children don’t get check-ups, because they can’t afford the office visit and have difficulty arranging transportation. For high fevers, colds, and allergies, they visit neighborhood clinics if they are open after hours, or they go to the emergency room. The family uses prescriptions when they can afford them or free samples from the clinics.

FACT: Among insured customers, 94% fill given prescriptions. However the uninsured population fills only 76% of its written prescriptions.

Because Mario and his family haphazardly receive care from different providers across the city, no one watches their overall health or instructs them on dietary and preventive measures.

FACT: The uninsured are more likely to be diagnosed with late-stage colorectal cancer, melanoma, breast cancer and prostate cancer. They are more likely to be more seriously ill upon hospitalization and are three times more likely to die in the hospital than insured patients.

This lack of information and oversight means Mario and his family continue to cope with health problems on a crisis-to-crisis basis. Unfortunately, they are typical of approximately 250,000 other uninsured people living in Dallas.

It was for these men and women that Project Access was created.

Statistics

•There are currently about 500,000 uninsured in Dallas County

•66% have family incomes below 200% of federal poverty level

•30% are children younger than 18

•76% of the working poor are U.S. citizens

•58% of the working poor are Hispanic