10 months ago
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The Arkansas Health Care Access Foundation says it's for people who've fallen through the cracks of the health care system.
The foundation started in 1989. It takes more than 1,700 doctors, dentists and other medical professional to volunteer to make it possible.
However, for many uninsured Arkansans it's not their first stop.
While poverty is the qualification, most people are refereed by DHS or an area free clinic.
At the end of a nine hour shift security guard Gabriel Coleman makes the last of his rounds, at River City Ministry.
"Basically keep the peace around here," says Coleman.
Coleman works full-time while the North Little Rock day shelter operates it's free dental and medical clinics.
He's uninsured, yet not sure if he qualifies for the free clinic where he works.
"It's just something that I have to deal with," says Coleman.
"We only take of those patients who are totally uninsured no insurance, no Medicare no Medicaid, sticky fallen through the cracks and have no alternatives,"
Medical Administrator Janan Qualmann estimates the medical clinic has about five hundred patients.
In the first six months of this year, volunteers have filled more than two thousand prescriptions.
"We have patients who are no income who are homeless on the streets. We have patients the ones that work for a company that doesn't offer insurance or maybe the company does offer insurance but they can't afford," says Qualmann.
"It's very challenging considering that you have other expenses. You have a family to take care of, you have other bills and responsibilities that you have to take of so you have to juggle it the best way you can," says Coleman.
Coleman says he tries to avoid getting sick, and when his immune system has other ideas he settles for a pricey emergency room visit.
"It's sad, but it's not surprising," says Qualmann.
Like most area free clinics, River City Ministry is equipped to handle basic care.
Volunteers with AHCAF see the patients with more serious ailments, about 1,800 Arkansans a year.
"If you don't have it you have to make it the best way you can, cause some people just can't afford it," says Coleman.
AHCAF was funded at first by a governor's task force.
The group says its in dire need of professional volunteers.
Click here to find out how to sign up for care, or how to volunteer.
