About Me

My photo
Nazareth, Pa., United States

Monday, March 02, 2009

Stimulus Funds Being Used For Pa. Health Clinics

A White House news release today announces that $6.7 million in stimulus funds is on its way to support six health centers in Pennsylvania. In addition to helping people with no health insurance gain access to comprehensive primary and preventive health care services, these funds will create 295 jobs.

Health centers in the following communities will receive support:

Community Health Clinic, Inc. in New Kensington, PA
North Side Christian Health Center in Pittsburgh, PA
Community Medical Services in Uniontown, PA
Chespenn Health Services in Chester, PA
Covenant House, Inc. in Philadelphia, PA
Keystone Rural Health Consortia, Inc. in Emporium, PA

Nationwide, grants totaling $155 million will assist 126 health centers to help provide health care to an estimated 750,000 low-income people across the country. They are expected to create 5500 jobs at new health centers across the country.

To locate a health center near you, go online to Find a Health Center.

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

With all due respect, so glad the government is taking care of everybody around the state with MY money. When my own family member gets the flu, and I can't afford the medicine, I can at least be reassured that everyone else is OK on my dime.

We had this discussion awhile back in which I thought that the local hospitals could contribute to clinics with their profit so that the emergency rooms wouldn't be packed with nonsense. Too much common sense there I guess!

Bernie, I think that you ran this story just to kick up dust and make people like me crazy.

Bernie O'Hare said...

"Bernie, I think that you ran this story just to kick up dust and make people like me crazy."

Moi? You don't think hospitals want poor people, do you?

Anonymous said...

Bernie, poor people are well covered in our hospitals. That's why I'm being charged insane fees for aspirin while I'm there which means that I'm now paying through my insurance AND my taxes AND the national debt that my daughter will pay for as well.

Anonymous said...

We already have de facto universal medicine. Nobody will be refused essential services tonight. Some will get better services than I. Many get better lawyers and cars and fancier houses than I, as well.

Contributors have long carried non-contributors and this will continue until there are no more contributors. Then we'll all be on the dole and sharing rationed mediocrity like our Canadian friends who wear a path to the US each year to pay cash for care.

The jobs claims are specious and humorously reminiscent of the old Five Year Plans issued by the Kremlin.

If printing borrowed money and spending our kids' future was the key to job creation and better health care, we'd do it all the time. There is a reason we don't.

Things that sound to good to be true are usually too good to be true - especially when uttered by the biggest bunch of crooks and cheats ever assembled in a single cabinet.

Bernie's in the boat, however. Another Obamamoonie is born every minute.

Please rerun the pre-election post with the militaristic pro-Barry chanting brown shirts. Let's just do this Orwellian thing all the way. Our dear leader demands our respect.

Bernie, are they forcing you to flak for them under threat of Fairness Doctrining your ass?

Anonymous said...

I think that my husband should quit working! Afterall,It is costing us a fortune for health insurance and then there are the deductibles and co pays. If were were indigient, not only would it be free but we would be moved to the front of the line. Why work? we gain nothing over those who live off our incomes!

Anonymous said...

If you wade through the stimulus package(not recommended), you will see that the focus of the largest govenment spending bill in history vis a vis the country's medical system is: (1) everyone having an electronic health record and (2) expanding health information privacy protections. Huh? Of all the issues in the field of health care that could use stimulus funds, this is all the Congress could come up with?

Why not simply use the money to increase Medicare payments to docs, hospitals, nursing homes so they can do with it what they want? A radical idea that the people who own / operate their organizations know best how to improve them.

One of the "brilliant" ideas in the stimulus bill is to require doctors for 3 years to maintain a list of all disclosures of a patient's health information made for treatment and payment purposes. Righttttt. Whose clamoring for this?

Anonymous said...

We're all in this together, lady rep.

Anonymous said...

I'll take you up on that, not so casual.

Give me a call when you are ready to abandon everything and "go" indigent. I'll take good care of your "ustabe" stuff.

Anonymous said...

Anon 9:01

Some prospective employers deny jobs to folks whom they suspect will cost to much to insure. Since I have a chronic, pre-existing condition (not at all acquired by choice), I would prefer that a future employer not have access to that information.

Anonymous said...

Lenin, Stalin & Khrushchev have won indeed and this is only one small piece of the puzzle. The rest is coming.

I now have documentation in my comments that can be referenced so that I can say, "I told you so" as all of the pieces start to fall into place not so far down the road. Wake up now, folks, and be careful what you ask for.

Anonymous said...

Lady Rep - time to renew those meds.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Ladfy Rep and her opinions are welcome. She does not respond to arguments w/ anonymous snarks.

Anonymous said...

A couple of facts about community health centers:
1) They have been around since the 1960's
2) Expansion of these community health centers was the cornerstone of the Bush administration's health care plan. There was a huge influx of new community health centers across the US over the last 8 years.
3) These community health centers provide care to anyone, not just the un-insured or the under-insured. With more and more people losing jobs and/or health benefits, these health centers become critical for access to quality health care.
4) Community Health Centers cannot be owned or run by hospitals or health care networks. They must be community owned and community governed. Federal regulations control how much influence a hospital can have on a community healthcenter.
5)Preventative and wellness services are key components...services insurance companies don't pay for and hospitals don't get paid for. This is a much cheaper way to provide health care.
6) We have no community health centers in the Lehigh Valley, although there is a group actively seeking to establish one.

So, these are well established across the country (we know they work), have been historically supported by Republicans and Democrats (one of the only things they have agreed upon when it comes to health care), provide wellness and preventative services to all, provide patient-centered primary health care and do it in a most cost efficient manner.

Sounds like progress to me.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Anon 9:47,

Thanks for the informed comment.

J. SPIKE ROGAN said...

OUR CURRRENT HEALTHCARE SYSTEM AM talk radio, fox, and highly far right wing bloggers claim is "THE BEST" is anything BUT!

OUR SYSTEM is not the BEst but the WORST!

My dad had a long wait to see specialist, you know what Rush tells us goes on in Canada!

Our system is FUCKED!

Bernie O'Hare said...

I have deleted a Spike Rogan comment. Spike, I did not read beyond your first sentence, in which you used a disparaging and misogynistic remark to my female commenters. There is no need for that.

J. SPIKE ROGAN said...

Well if you would have read it, you would have seen the point!

These "Women" and I use that term very loosely are babbling with spoon fed Right wing talking points about how GREAT our healthcare system is while I have my dad's ashes to show other wise!


My father is DEAD from their great healthcare system!

I hope they get the same cancer he had and can see how wonderful it is!

Stop being politically correct! I hope those women have to suffer like my father! I hope they can see the pain this GREAT system brings!

Anonymous said...

Spike, first of all, I would never address you in a crude way no matter how much we may disagree. That being said, our healthcare is very far from perfect. A good chunk of that is because the people who are paying can't keep propping up the people who are not. We have been sinking closer and closer to socialized medicine as it is. Just think about your frustration in a Motor Vehicle Dept. line and then translate that to healthcare.

BTW - My father died from leukemia and I had to fight for him in the "system" every step of the way. I myself have issues with how his case was handled, but, the bigger the system, the worse the care. It's because I had that experience that I feel so strongly about this now. It will get worse.

There, Spike, I'm done. Say what you want.

Anonymous said...

"poor people are well covered in our hospitals"

yeah, sure. when i was pregnant, waiting in the lobby to have some test to be done, a woman came in with her son who was in a car accident and he needed an x-ray of his arm, which was hurt. they boy was like 6 or so. the woman at the counter asked her for her insurance. she said she didnt have any. the woman at the counter refused to have the little boy looked at. they went back and forth for about ten minutes about how it was the other car's fault and they were gonna pay for it etc, but still, they would not look at the little boy.

yes, our healthcare system is a mess, but seriously. stop complaining about us taxpayers supporting the poor. what happens if you suddenly get ill and lose your job and health ins? you'll be singing a different tune when you are on the other side of the fence.

the system needs to be overhauled majorly, but we have to start somewhere.

also, these ins companies need to be overhauled too. MAJORLY. half the time doctors and patients are walking on eggshells with them. unless you have a big attorney breathing down their necks, they dont want to pay out when you need it the most.

it's a shame. you pay so, so much into insurance companies and then when you need it the most, you're dumped off faster than a prom dress.

ins. cos need to change the most. it would be a trickle down effect.

Anonymous said...

Spike's old man likely offed himself out of crushing disappointment with the way his offspring turned out.

Go back to taking notes from Keith Olberman.

And learn how to construct sentences properly and stop shaming public educators with each attempt at a communication.

Anonymous said...

J Spike Rogan should actually live in Canada before he speaks with such wise knowledge. My wife is Canadian.. i spend alot of time in Canada because of the Lawyers in DC that Created our ingenius immigration laws ( that none of them seem to understand either) and i have seen the candian healt care system first hand. My wifes aunt had to wait 16 months for cancer surgery, my wife had to wait 2 months just to get a check up for her thyroid, my daugther was told by one dr. one evening she was fine.. and the next day by another she had pneumonia. in addition, most canadians who can afford it, purchase additional insurance so they can go to better clinics and get better service.

so if your gonna use the Canada example.. please actually have a clue. and also.. please go there if u still feel the same... they are dying for people to move thier and are egarly letting people in thier country from all over.. especially the philippines ... they have canadian immigration offices all over the place there now.. (was just there for a month) and in addition thier population in most areas have not grown significantly in over 30yrs because people move away. (some provinces havent' grown at all ie Saskatchewan.. say that 5 times fast) but You and Michael Moore feel free to live there.. Michigan doesn't want him either.

Chris Miller said...

Spike
Do you think that you dad would be pleased with your foul manner?

Anonymous said...

Spike is making valid points as I lost a family member as well to our pathetic health care system. Some will say I don't believe you, well I don't believe Mr. Lawyer-Canada, or maybe I do. The point is the right wing goofs come on here and go on and on about the virtues of everything Republican.. They then claim they are non-partisan, look up the word.

O'Hare please don't let your new new right-wingnut buddies and mancrush on Dent cause you to attack people like spike. His passion is laudable. Anyone who thinks our Healthcare is not in need of sime reform is crazy.

In Canada the big three save money building cars and paying their taxes. Wake up people, 80% of America has left you behind.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Spike's passion is laudable, but his personal attacks will not be tolerated. People like Spike and you need to learn how to argue without demeaning personal remarks that just end up making both of you look like idiots.

And inciodentally, I happen to agree with the stimulus and its use for health centers. But I have long maintained that this country is broken because people on left and right have stopped listening to each other.

Anonymous said...

How about a community health center for the Lehigh Valley? Why aren't we demanding one for here?