Access to health care: Neighboring communities suffer differently

"For people lacking health insurance in the Washington [D.C.] region, where they live can make all the difference in getting affordable health care," The Washington Post reports. In the District of Columbia, the city provides tax-payer funded health insurance to many; though 10 percent of eligible adults remain uninsured, the city is actively seeking them out. But, in suburban Prince George's County, Md., one-fifth of adults are uninsured and while five community clinics treated about 6,000 patients last year, many others did not get care.

"A lack of health insurance is not the only factor determining whether people have access to care. But many clinics that provide free or low-cost health care to low-income residents say they are flooded with people who have let their health slide, often for years, because they have no insurance" (Morello, 11/9).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.