North Carolina, Recession Breeds a Health-Care Crisis Job Losses Leave State With Highest Percentage of Uninsured (Washington Post)

North Carolina, Recession Breeds a Health-Care Crisis
Job Losses Leave State With Highest Percentage of Uninsured

By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 20, 2009

GREENSBORO, N.C. — It’s right there on the wall, hectoring David Talbot as he races from one exam room to another.

“You want to see the recession? There it is,” Talbot says, pointing to a row of multicolored graphs. “We began to spike in October 2008, and we’re losing the battle now. We just can’t keep up.”

Recessions are tallied in numbers — jobless claims, home foreclosures, plant closings and bailout dollars. Here at the HealthServe community clinic, Talbot, the medical director, tracks the recession in days — the number of days that patients wait to see a doctor.

Just six months ago, the clinic delivered same-day care to most callers, the gold standard from a health perspective. But in October the delays crept to four days, then 19 in November and 25 in December. In January, HealthServe temporarily stopped accepting new patients, and almost immediately 380 people put their names on a waiting list for when the crunch eases.

In North Carolina, more than any other state, the recession has triggered a burgeoning medical crisis. A steep rise in unemployment has fueled a commensurate increase in the number of people who do not have health insurance, including many middle-income families.

“I used to be upper middle class,” said Amy, who called HealthServe every morning for weeks before getting in to see Talbot. “I’ve paid my taxes for 30 years.”

Rest of Story (Washington Post)

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