From rural doc to America's family physician
The focus of the health care reform debate has been on Washington and insurance companies and hospitals. The talk has, so far, been about how expensive the current delivery system is.
Dr. Regina Benjamin comes to the debate from a different place, literally and figuratively. Yesterday, President Obama made the family doctor, who for years has cared for the poor and uninsured in rural Alabama, his choice for surgeon general. In doing so, he put the spotlight -- if only for a news cycle -- on those communities that shouldn't be ignored as the debate continues.
Benjamin's work has been in a small clinic in the 2,500 resident Gulf Coast town of Bayou La Batre, 25 miles south of Mobile. And it hasn't been easy. Often, her patients are cash-strapped and she has accepted payment in the form of oysters or fish. She has moonlighted in emergency rooms in other towns to help keep her clinic afloat. "You got treated if you had money or not," the town's mayor told NPR this morning. ...
She has made other sacrifices, too. "When Hurricane Georges sent five feet of water surging into the clinic in 1998, she made house calls until it was rebuilt," the NYT says today. "When Hurricane Katrina destroyed the clinic again seven years later, she mortgaged her house to rebuild. And when a fire destroyed the rebuilt clinic the day before it was set to reopen, she sent out appeals across the country for aid to build again."
The details of Regina Benjamin's story may be unique, but her struggle isn't. She is one of thousands of rural family doctors who put the needs of their patients ahead of their own. And there aren't enough of them to serve the many poor communities out there. She becomes a national voice for rural health care in America.
Comments
Dr. Benjamin represents the many doctors dedicated to patient care. She can bring the prospective of a caring and understanding physician that cares about the needs of the poor, under and uninsured.
Posted by: Carolyn Edwards | July 15, 2009 11:56 PM