The Observer Newspapers | Free Clinic Addresses Need for Health Care

April 10, 2008

Free Clinic Addresses Need for Health Care

To the editor:

I am writing to address points made in Betty Valley's recent letter to the editor ("Critics Belittle Work of Council," The Observer April 4). Ms. Valley suggested the Jeanie Schmidt Free Clinic is funded by Fairfax County taxpayers. While we did receive one $50,000 grant this year from the county's Consolidated Community Funding Pool, the vast majority of our support comes from private donations from individuals and organizations that care about providing health care to people in need. Funds from both federal, state, and county sources are consolidated into the CCFP to fund human services through non-profit agencies using a competitive grant process.

The Jeanie Schmidt Free Clinic, formerly the Herndon Free Clinic, was founded by volunteers with the mission of providing health care to people in need. Our criteria for enrollment is based on a lack of income and the need for services. We are located in a private facility and staffed, for the most part, by dedicated volunteers. It should also be noted that the majority of our patients are not Hispanic, as Ms. Valley proclaimed. Our patients have found themselves uninsured and in financial difficulty for a variety of reasons from losing a job, to suffering a health crisis, to separation from an abusive spouse, to relocation for a job opportunity.

The volunteers and supporters of the clinic are proud to offer these health services to people in Herndon, Reston, Chantilly and Centreville. Not only is our wish to help those in need, but to serve the entire community by improving the health of our neighbors. By preventing visits to the emergency room and in many cases, helping our patients avoid a health crisis, the clinic serves to reduce the costs of uninsured to the broader community. Rather than "adding to the problem" as Ms. Valley suggested, we provide sorely needed health care to those in need.

Meagan Ulrich

Executive Director

Jeanie Schmidt Free Clinic