stands at the top of the nation in YPLL. Secondly, there was a dramatic increase in YPLL in Grundy County between 2000 and 2009 without a corresponding increase in Tennessee and the USA. We need to understand the reason for this growing surge in Grundy’ s YPLL. A local epidemic of methamphetamine and other illicit drug use occurred during those years. This is a possible explanation.
How will the change of political administrations in our country affect the Beersheba Clinic? A few of our patients benefited from the Affordable Care Act. Some were able to get health insurance that did not have it before, nevertheless we think we had a net gain in numbers of patients in spite of the ACA. Given the current political climate, this trend will continue, and there will be an even greater need for free health care in the future. The health care income gap between people who can afford care, and those who can’ t, is growing as costs rise. The richest people pay the most for health care and have the best outcomes, but they pay the lowest percent of their income for health care. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said,“ Of all the forms of discrimination and inequalities, injustice in health is the most shocking and most inhuman.”
Physician Assistants-Certified at the Beersheba Springs Medical Clinic,
Linda Elrod and Norma Sparks
is diagnosing and treating illness earlier, and we are helping people manage their chronic diseases better.
Annual expenses are around $ 100,000— the largest expenses are salaries: 65 percent, followed by medicines: 15 percent and labs: 10 percent. In 2015, 85 percent of income was from donations: 55 percent philanthropic, and nearly 30 percent from patient donations. Dash to the Door, a 5K Fun / Run event, accounted for 15 percent of income.( DTTD pictures are at www. beershebaclinic. org).
We have a Board of 17 Directors, 14 are full-time Beersheba area residents. Our bylaws require that the majority board membership come from the community or nearby area.
Of Tennessee’ s 95 counties, Grundy ranks 95, both in income and in health outcomes. An important measure of population health is Years of Potential Life Lost( YPLL) before age 75. For example, a death at age 65 accounts for 10 years of potential life lost before age 75; a death at age 50 equals 25 years of potential life lost. Figure 1( page 14, top) illustrates that on this statistic Grundy County is off the chart- above the 99th percentile. 3
Figure 2( page 14, bottom) illustrates the huge disparity between Grundy County; the state of Tennessee, and the United States in YPLL, with a surging gap between 2000 and 2009.
These graphs make two points. The first is that Grundy County
We started the Beersheba Clinic, not because of the lack of available health care, but because of the lack of affordable health care. My friends and neighbors were suffering. I knew this intuitively, but since opening the clinic, I have witnessed their pain firsthand; it has been a profound experience. A couple of years ago I described this sad reality in testimony for Senator Bernie Sanders at a US Senate hearing entitled,“ Is Poverty a Death Sentence?” I spoke about people I have known, all of whom failed, or were failing, to get life-saving health care because they couldn’ t afford it; for whom poverty is, has been or will be a death sentence, and also those for whom illness is a poverty sentence. You can see this testimony at www. beershebaclinic. org. I closed my testimony with these words,“ Thank you for this opportunity to speak for those without a voice, who have died or will die as a result of our country’ s unwillingness to acknowledge that health care is a human right and to provide affordable, high quality health care to every resident.”
Not long ago I stepped into an examining room to see a woman with a tooth abscess. The right side of her face was swollen almost to the size of a baseball. She was holding it with her hand. As I looked in her mouth at the abscessed tooth, she said,“ I seen videos about you. I’ m so glad that somebody cares.” Then she started crying, I put my arm around her and I cried too.
Dr. Adams is a retired pediatric infectious disease specialist.
REFERENCES
1. Almon, Clopper. ed. Beersheba Springs, a History. Volume II: Families, Homes, Lore and More. Beersheba Springs, TN: Beersheba Springs Historical Society, 2014.
2. Accessed at www. lifepointhealth. net / investor-relations / proxy-statements-annual-reports, 6.4.16
3. YPLL before age 75, per 100,000 LIVES. 2016 County Health Rankings: www. countyhealthrankings. org
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