Three women waited in line at Crisis Control Ministry’s in-house pharmacy at 200 E. 10 th St. in Winston-Salem on Monday morning. Each had a different story to tell about their struggle to afford quality healthcare.
All three women declined to give their full names for privacy reasons. They confirmed they sought help from Crisis Control because they don’t have health insurance.
J. Walker said she was laid off from her job from a Sheetz gas station/convenience store on July 13. As a result, she lost her health insurance coverage. Walker, 61, said she has applied for Social Security after being laid off and was recently notified her benefits would begin on Dec. 16. In the meantime, Walker said her visit to Crisis Control Ministry marked the first time in five years she had requested assistance from the nonprofit.
Crisis Control has the distinction of having the first licensed free pharmacy in North Carolina, and the largest free pharmacy in Forsyth County. Last year, Crisis Control filled more than 26,000 prescriptions, valued at over $2.1 million, according to Executive Director Margaret Elliott.
On Monday, Walker had seven prescriptions filled at the nonprofit’s free pharmacy. Walker said she takes four medications for high blood pressure, one medication for her type II diabetes, one medication for her depression, and one medication for her high cholesterol.
If not for Crisis Control’s free pharmacy, Walker said she doesn’t know what she would do. “I would probably wind up in the hospital,” she said. “I have type II diabetes, but through crisis control, they said they would contact the pharmaceutical companies and they might be able to help. To be an individual to have to make all those calls to the pharmaceutical companies would be very hard, so Crisis Control is a huge help.” Cynthia Fearrington, Crisis Control’s director of client services, said the nonprofit works with pharmaceutical companies to obtain free medicines in 90-day doses. Mary Talton, a Crisis Control staff member, is tasked with requesting free medicines from pharmaceutical companies.
Fearrington said the agency has seen a tremendous surge in both one-time-only requests for medication and pharmacy certification requests. Pharmacy certification requests are “for people that nothing is going to change in the next six months — folks applying for disability with chronic health problems,” she said. “We’ve experienced a 50-percent increase in certified clients from June 2008 to June 2009, and it’s the same for onetime requests,” Fearrington said. “We’re seeing a lot of people whose unemployment insurance has run out.” Winston-Salem’s unemployment stood at 10.4 percent in June, slightly less than the state average of 11 percent, according to the US Department of Labor.
Walker said she believes landing a goodpaying job is the best way out of her current predicament. She plans on enrolling in courses at Goodwill Industries of Northwest North Carolina to work toward becoming a certified nursing assistant. Eventually, Walker plans on becoming a phlebotomy technician.
“I’m in a transition period,” she said. “I want to go into the medical field because that seems to be what is in demand these days. What I’m hoping is after I complete my nurse’s aid course, I’ll begin looking for work as a nurse’s aid, and continue my study of phlebotomy which will give me an extra income.”
The mission of Crisis Control is to help people experiencing temporary setbacks meet essential life needs and eventually become self-sufficient. But in light of the current economy, the agency has had to relax its rules somewhat, Fearrington said. “There’s a difference in a first-time person
who comes here who had
a good-paying job and they just lost their unemployment,” Fearrington
said. “We don’t hold them as accountable for having a plan as we used
to because with the economy we realize they can’t always have a plan.”
For those clients who come in simply for pharmaceutical assistance,
Crisis Control has a different set of rules.
“Pharmacy has
always been different because it’s for people who can’t have another
plan,” Fearrington said. “They need medicine and they will die without
it.” C. Ward arrived at Crisis Control on Monday morning needing to get
four prescriptions filled. One of her prescriptions was an antibiotic
to treat an abscessed tooth.
She said the pain of the
infection grew so intense that she wound up in the emergency room at
Baptist Hospital on Sunday. The emergency room visit represented Ward’s
third trip to the hospital in the past two months. Ward, who also has
type II diabetes, was treated at Forsyth Memorial Hospital two weeks
ago when her blood sugar “bottomed out.” Ward said she stopped taking
her diabetes medication when she lost her health insurance last year.
Ward said she was covered under her ex-husband’s employer’s health
plan, but when she and her husband split up, she lost her coverage.
Ward said she is getting her diabetes treated at Community Care Center,
a free medical and dental clinic on New Walkertown Road. However,
she’ll have to wait two to three months before she can have her bad
tooth pulled.
For the past year, Ward said she was just barely getting by — not going for routine check-ups and not taking her medication.
But
in June, she suffered a serious bout with depression and had to check
herself into Forsyth Memorial Hospital. Ward said she’s doing a lot
better now because of the free medications she’s receiving from Crisis
Control.
“I’ve applied for disability because my depression
got so bad I couldn’t work; I couldn’t deal with everyday stress,” she
said. “Since then, I haven’t been taking my diabetes medicine.”
Ward
said her short-term goal is to improve her health so she can back to
school and get back in the workforce. Ward, who worked as a medical
technician in an assisted living facility for 15 years, said she would
like to gain her certification in medical office technology and work in
a doctor’s office.
On the matter of healthcare reform, Ward said she thinks the process of applying for emergency assistance, like Medicaid, should
‘Pharmacy
has always been different because it’s for people who can’t have
another plan. They need medicine and they will die without it.’ — Cynthia Fearrington, director of client services for Crisis Control be streamlined. Ward also said people with preexisting conditions should not be penalized by health insurance companies.
“I
think they need to figure out a way to make it affordable, and not
necessarily through an employer,” she said. “I’m not sure if I agree
with national healthcare coverage, but they should make it so everyone
could qualify. There has to be a better way to do it.” Fearrington
agrees that healthcare reform is necessary. The real challenge is
figuring out what healthcare reform should look like, she said. The
large groups of individuals who are being neglected by the current
system are those who have applied for disability and have no income,
Fearrington said. “These people have no means to pay any bills, much
less for prescription drugs,” she added.
A growing segment of
people who seek assistance from Crisis Control’s free pharmacy are
those who are working full-time but their employers don’t provide
healthcare insurance and they don’t earn enough to purchase insurance
on their own, Fearrington said. Then there are seniors on Medicare who
fall into the “donut hole.” Tina Adkins, assistant director of
clientservices for Crisis Control, said 25 to 30 percent of her clients
cannot afford to meet the Medicare deductible that can be upwards of
$4,500.
“There’s been an increase in people who are working
and are just barely making ends meet,” Adkins said. “Some clients’
employers provide insurance but they can’t afford their contribution.”
M.
Branch also waited in line at Crisis Control’s free pharmacy on Monday.
Branch, 38, said she lost her health care coverage when her employer
decreased her hours from full-time to part-time. She got two
prescriptions filled for a preexisting condition.
“Hopefully,
it’s just a one-time thing,” Branch said. Branch said she is currently
applying for a number of full-time positions and remains hopeful that
health insurance will come with a new job. With respect to the
healthcare reform debate, Branch said she believes that affordable
health insurance should be a fundamental right, especially for those
who have lost their jobs in the current recession.
Fearrington said Crisis Control represents the front lines of the healthcare and unemployment crisis in Forsyth County.
“If
you think we don’t have an economic problem, come [to Crisis Control],”
Fearrington said. “We’re a great reflection of it.” With so many
different models of a federally-backed health care plan that covers all
citizens, Fearrington said there has to be some provision made for
those who are out of work through no fault of their own, and doing
their best to get back on their feet. After all, the resources of
Crisis Control and other social service agencies are being pushed to
the limit.
“Right now, we are the safety net,” she said.
The Obama administration has launched a public campaign to spread its message on healthcare reform in the face of significant reaction from conservative activists. (courtesy image)
