Sunday, March 29, 2009

A little help for a few


If you suffered the ravages of the Bush administration, you're still SOL, but if you're brand-new to the unemployment rolls, there's a little help on the health-care horizon.

The Take Care clinics at Walgreens are offering limited free care to select, newly out-of-work folks, or "Terminated Persons," as they call them. The plan seems designed for maximum PR value — "Free care!" — while curtailing the actual number of patients they'll accept to a bare minimum. Here are the generous terms:
  1. Only job losses after March 31, 2009, qualify.
  2. Someone in your immediate family must have been treated at Take Care before your job loss.
  3. You must be collecting unemployment.
  4. You must not have COBRA or any other insurance.
  5. Only the Terminated Person, your legal spouse (or official, same-sex domestic partner) and minor children for whom you are legal guardians qualify.
  6. Any prescriptions the practitioner writes will be charged at regular price.
Take Care offers diagnosis and treatment of minor ailments by nurse practitioners and physicians assistants. Not all their services are covered under this plan. There's a lot of rigmarole to get certified, too. Oh, and free treatment is offered only from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.

I wouldn't rely on Take Care's services instead of signing up for subsidized COBRA, but if you don't qualify for COBRA and meet the other criteria, it might be worth applying.

Otherwise, a visit will cost you $59 to $80. If you don't have a regular doctor, and you sprain your ankle or come down with the runs, it's better than the emergency room.

The website has details.

1 comment:

  1. Actually, 59-80 would be a lot cheaper than most doctor visits if you don;t have insurance. I might have to look into them since my doc just left his practice grrr. Anyone know of any docs that offer special pricing to the uninsured out in the Aurora area?

    ReplyDelete

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