| Health Clinic For Uninsured Needs More Volunteers (VIDEO) |
| Ted Fioraliso | |
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September 23, 2009
CORNING -- A local health organization needs volunteers to help with the skyrocketing number of people in the Southern Tier who don't have health insurance.
There are now an estimated 22,000 people without health insurance in Chemung, Schulyer, and Steuben Counties, and Health Ministry of the Southern Tier needs more volunteers to help those people.
“Quite honestly, I'd be dead. There are no two ways about it,” said Sal Tangorre.
Tangorre is a self-employed photographer who lived without health insurance for 17 years.
“I wasn't getting sick, I felt it was a waste of money,” he said.
But diabetes was quietly killing Tangorre. He didn't know about it until he came to the Health Ministry of the Southern Tier. The volunteer-based clinic provides medical care to the uninsured.
Health Ministry started at the old St. Patrick's rectory a dozen years ago. Since then, the need has grown so great, it now has four locations throughout Chemung, Schuyler, and Steuben Counties…the office with the fastest growing need is in Corning.
“We didn't know it would get so big. We would have hoped there would be a solution to health care by now,” said founder Patti Gilchrist.
Gilchrist says the United States needs health care reform now.
“Since 1997, what we've done is doing something about it. We're not talking about it. We're just doing it,” said Gilchrist.
“We've got people that if I don't see them or one of the other providers don't see them in the clinic, they don't get seen,” said Jeff Hoffman.
By day, Hoffman is an Episcopal priest -- but once a week, he volunteers his time at Health Ministry as a physician's assistant.
Hoffman says at the end of the day he feels tired yet fulfilled.
Hoffman and the folks at Health Ministry helped Tangorre eventually find his own health care provider.
Tangorre says he'll always be grateful for health ministry's services.
“What they do is from the heart. They're non-paid people giving their time to give back,” said Tangorre.
Health Ministry officials estimate they're only reaching less than five percent of the area's uninsured.
They need volunteer MD’s, physician's assistants, and nurse practitioners.
If you'd like to help, call (607) 962-2032.
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