San Francisco Volunteer Charity Provides Surgical Services for Uninsured
Founded in 1993 by San Francisco, Calif.-based health care providers "frustrat[ed] with government inaction" on the issue of the uninsured, Operation Access provides free elective surgery for low-income California residents who cannot afford private insurance but earn too much to qualify for public assistance programs such as Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program, the Los Angeles Times reports in a profile of the program. One Saturday each month, surgeons, anesthesiologists and nurses open the operating suite at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in San Francisco and perform minor procedures, including hernia repair, amputation of gangrenous toes and excision of localized mouth cancers, for local uninsured individuals. The hospital provides the supplies for free. Operation Access volunteers say the "relatively simple" procedures that they perform will save patients from greater and more costly health care problems in the future. Operation Access co-founder Dr. Douglas Grey said, "If you were to try to get a hernia repair in the private market here in San Francisco, it would cost you about $5,000. For someone making $15,000 or even $25,000 a year, that's a joke, especially when the actual cost in materials -- suture kits and the rest -- is less than $100. Before Operation Access, these cases just fell through the cracks."
More than a Stopgap
Grey and Dr. William Schecter, another Operation Access co-founder, originally envisioned the program as a stopgap measure to help the uninsured until the federal government devised a "comprehensive solution." Since its beginnings, Operation Access' patient load has "surge[d]" to nearly 200 people annually. In addition, the program has expanded to include 13 Bay area hospitals and 185 volunteer medical professionals. The Times reports that the program's success is "bittersweet" for its co-founders. In particular, Grey and Schecter are "dismayed" by federal lawmakers' failure to address the uninsured and their focus instead on expanding services for the already-insured with debates over issues such as patients' rights and a Medicare prescription drug benefit. About 22.4% of Californians lack health insurance, compared to 17% nationally. San Francisco County has the highest proportion -- 34% -- of uninsured residents in the state. Grey said, "All this energy expended into drug coverage and the patients' bill of rights totally ignores the fact that millions and millions of Americans have no insurance and no rights at all." Schecter added, "The uninsured have just sort of dropped off the political radar" (Wielawski, Los Angeles Times, 8/27).
