CANDIDATE WANTS STATE TO HELP FUND HEALTH CLINICS

Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Talent wants the state to put $10 million into improving and expanding community health clinics for uninsured and poor Missourians.

In a telephone conference call to reporters Tuesday, the U.S. congressman said the state needs expanded community health clinics.

The state currently doesn't fund the 15 community health centers and 35 satellite clinics in the state.

Talent wants the state to spend $2.5 million a year over the next four years to help fund health centers.

Speaking from Washington, Talent said increased funding could allow the clinics to provide medical care for 500,000 Missourians by 2004, more than double the current 200,000.

Talent said his Neighborhood Access Initiative could provide money for equipment and other improvements, as well as expand the number of satellite clinics.

Over 70 Missouri counties, over two-thirds of the state geographically, have been designated by the federal government as medically under-served areas.

Funded partly by the federal government, health centers provide primary and preventive health care.

Talent said the clinics also could see added funding if Republican George Bush is elected president. Bush has proposed spending $4.3 billion over five years to expand community and migrant health centers across the nation.

"Clinics can be a one-stop kind of setting," said Talent. "They have an outstanding record of treating folks who need help."

Some states already provide millions of dollars in funding for community health clinics, he said.

The clinics provide services on a sliding fee scale, based on patients' ability to pay.

Talent doesn't see his proposal as putting the state in competition with those in private medical practice. He said community health centers treat patients that aren't regularly seen by private-practice doctors.

Forty-two percent of Missouri's health center patients are uninsured; 33 percent have Medicaid; 15 percent are privately insured and 7 percent have Medicare, Talent said. Sixty-one percent have an annual income below the federal poverty level.

In Southeast Missouri, there are two health clinic groups. Cross Trails Medical Center operates in Cape Girardeau, with satellite clinics in Advance and Marble Hill.

The Southeast Missouri Health Network is based in New Madrid, with two clinics in Kennett, and one each in Sikeston and Portageville.

Besides boosting funding for community health clinics, Talent favors creating association health plans. Under the plan, individuals and small businesses could join associations that could provide more comprehensive and less costly individual coverage.

The most expensive part of Talent's health plan is a proposal that would make it easier for people to access the state's at-risk insurance pool. The program initially would cost about $8 million a year, but could reach $25 to $30 million by the fourth year, he said.

But association health plans could lessen the need for people to be in the high-risk insurance pool, lowering the estimated cost for expanding that insurance option, Talent said.