CONTACT:

Karen Gottlieb
Executive Director
AmeriCares Free Clinics  

The Newtown Bee, May 4, 2003 - A rising demand of health care services at the AmeriCares Free clinics in Connecticut reflects a growing crisis across the United States. According to an AmeriCares representative, the crisis is caused by a flat economy, cutbacks in state-sponsored programs, increased unemployment  and medical cost increases that have left more than 43.6 million people uninsured in this country.

According to an AmeriCares newsletter, with predictions of healthcare costs doubling over the next ten years, the outlook is grim. "It's our own disaster, and it's getting worse," Karen Gottlieb, AmeriCares executive director of the Free Clinics program, said recently. She noted that because a large segment of the population is uninsured, everyone pays for uncompensated care through higher taxes and increased health insurance premiums. Free Clinics, such as those offered by AmeriCares in three Connecticut cities, are not a total answer to the problem, she said. " they are just one small thing a community can do. Hopefully there is a better answer."

Because of the additional patients seeking medical help, AmeriCares is looking for ways to expand its services. It hopes to add a nurse pracitioner, but to do so, "we need additional funding and volunteers," Ms Gottlieb sais. Ms. Gottlieb, Joan Petersen, vice president and director of development, and Deb Howard, community affairs director of AmeriCares' Free Clinics, recently discussed updates in health services offered by the organization. AmeriCares, a nonprofit disaster relief and humanitarian aid organization, which recently moved its headquarters from New Canaan to Stamford, provides immediate response to emergency medical and other related needs nationally and internationally and supports long-term healthcare programs for people around the world.

Ms Gottlieb said a shipment from AmeriCares goes someplace every day. Since AmeriCares'  founding in 1982, it has delivered more than $3.4 bilion in aid to more than 137 nations worldwide. Over the past year, AmeriCares has responded with airlifts of emergency relief to amny countries worldwide, including the fires in California and most recently to earthquack victims in Iran. Ms Petersen said an assessment team left for Iran December 28, and a cargo plane that left december 30 included a doctor, from Yale, an AmeriCares staff member, and medical and other supplies. "As the relief effort continues, we will adapt to the needs as they change," she said. "There will be more aislifts." The organization, she notes, relies on the partners in others areas as to what response is required. "This allows us to be nimble and reactive," she said.