Percentage of Kerrville residents without health coverage higher than national average [Kerrville Daily Times, Texas]

March 31--Everlena Norman, a 62-year-old Kerrville resident, was in a good mood Thursday as nurses from the Raphael Community Free Clinic checked her blood sugar during a check-up.

Norman was diagnosed years ago with diabetes, but like a growing number of Kerr County residents, she's had to make due without health insurance. She said receiving regular medical checkups and medication has been a struggle.

"It's been a while," she said. "I just wasn't doing the medicines, because I couldn't afford them."

Norman said she and her husband are currently raising two of her grandchildren, ages 3 and 1 1/2. She said costs make her and her husband emphasize the children's needs before their own.

"Paying out of pocket makes a big difference -- a couple hundred dollars or more just for routine things," she said. "Instead of focusing on yourself, you try to do the best that you can with them."

Kerrville and Kerr County rank above the nation in percentage of people without health insurance.

According to the United States Census Bureau, data collected from 2008-10 showed 20.1 percent of Kerrville residents don't have health insurance coverage. For Kerr County, the percentage is 19.2 percent.

Nationally, the Center for Disease Control reported that 16 percent of Americans were uninsured in 2010.

Sister Marge Novak, clinic director for the Raphael Clinic, said the statistic didn't surprise her.

"There's so many uninsured here, it's not even funny," she said.

She said the clinic opened in 1997 to serve the medically uninsured in Kerr and surrounding counties. The clinic has about 3,500 active patients and distributes about 550 prescriptions a month to its patients.

It's common for employers to offer employees health benefits as part of a payment package, but not all businesses are able to provide health insurance.

Denny Foster, owner of Lemon Tree Cleaners in Kerrville, said the costs of running a business in Kerrville keeps him from providing health insurance for his employees.

"I would absolutely love to offer my employees health insurance," he said. "Health insurance costs are amazingly expensive. It would cost almost as much as my entire payroll. It's a cost that's unattainable for me."

Foster said other financial strains keep him from providing health insurance to his employees, such as the higher costs of running a dry-cleaning business in Kerrville.

"We run a commercial dry-cleaning business," he said. "There is no one locally to service these machines or for supplies. It costs more for the drive-time than for the actual service itself."

Foster said for his 32 employees, he brings in Walgreens employees to administer flu shots to anyone who wants them and allows "flex-time" so his employees can attend doctor's appointments when they are scheduled.

Pat Murray, CEO of Peterson Regional Medical Center, said he thinks the economy is a likely culprit for the high rate of uninsured.

"In my view, it's related to the recession," he said. "It makes a significant impact. We've experienced a much higher utilization by patients without insurance. Our challenge, administratively, is to figure out how we balance our budget and balance the needs of not just the patients, but our physicians and employees."

The emergency department is where Murray said the majority of the uninsured go to receive medical care and that makes treatment a more involved process.

"What we experience is people coming to the emergency room and that does stress the system," he said. "It makes the situation more complicated. Many patients will delay or put off visits. The emergency room physician is put in the position of 'I've got to do a head-to-toe workup' on the patient."

Murray said in the last fiscal year, the hospital had about $17 million in charity care expenses.

The hospital has a budget of about $100 million.

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(c)2012 the Kerrville Daily Times (Kerrville, Texas)

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