The next Public Affairs Discussion Group will address “Obamacare and the Free Clinic” in a discussion led by Danny Williams, executive director of the Free Clinic of Greater Cleveland. The event will take place Friday, Oct. 17, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in Mather House 100. Please note: This is a different location than the group's normal meeting place.
The discussion will focus on how the free clinic factors into the fluctuating health care system. If the United States had true national health insurance, there might be no need for something called “the free clinic”—or the name might be redundant. But the U.S. doesn’t have true national health insurance, and the 2010 legislation to expand access to health insurance instead is a partial patch on a set of health care finance arrangements. The system of Community Health Centers, of which Cleveland's Free Clinic is a part, has been another patch.
How do they relate to each other? Will expansions of Medicaid and insurance through exchanges mean that The Free Clinic now gets paid for more of its services, so it can provide more and better care? Will need for its services be reduced because many of its patients can afford to go elsewhere? Will The Free Clinic still be as necessary as ever, due to a shortage of other primary care for its clients? Come discuss these—and many more—questions at the weekly meeting of the Public Affairs Discussion Group.
Since 1989, faculty, emeriti, students and staff have gathered on Fridays for a brown-bag lunch and to discuss topics in public affairs.
For updates and more information about the Friday lunch schedule, visit fridaylunch.case.edu.
