90.7 WMFE
By: Danielle Prieur
Healthcare is one of the most important things for Floridians this election. That’s according to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll. While voters decide on which candidate has the best plan, free clinics bear the brunt of Florida’s uninsured.
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Shepherd’s Hope serves uninsured patients in Orange and Seminole Counties. And the number keeps rising. This year alone they served more than 20,000 patients. And they’re still not meeting the demand. “So far through this year we’ve had to turn away a total of 900 patients.”
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About 200,000 patients relied on clinics like Shepherd’s Hope around the state last year according to the Florida Association of Free and Charitable Clinics. Joan Alker with Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families says this isn’t a long-term solution. “This is a particularly difficult situation. For folks living in rural areas. Rural areas really have greater provider shortages and there aren’t a lot of options for folks there if they’re uninsured.” Joan Alker estimates last year about 12.9 percent of Florida’s population was uninsured. That’s more than 2.6 million people. Healthcare has become a talking point on the campaign trail for both parties. The Democrat in the gubernatorial race Andrew Gillum says he wants to get more people covered by expanding Medicaid. Medicaid expansion would cover almost 700,000 more Floridians.
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