Shepherd’s Hope highlights gap in health coverage

One in four Central Floridians are uninsured. So in a way, 100 people in a room of 400 attendees at Shepherd’s Hope’s13th annual fundraiser breakfast on Thursday could be without health insurance, the free clinic’s founder, Dr. William Barnes, told his audience.

Among its five Central Florida locations, the clinic provided care to 21,000 uninsured and underinsured people in 2014, with the help of 25 full-time and part-time staff and 1,800 volunteers. The community donated more than $24 million worth of medical services, specialty care and diagnostics. Still, 2,000 people in need of care were turned away due to lack of capacity.

People who seek care at Shepherd’s Hope aren’t all indigent.

“They’re your neighbors, your co-workers” and others whose jobs don’t provide health insurance, leaving them struggling to pay for their health care.

The clinic’s number of visits in 2014 increased by 22 percent from 2012, said Marni Stahlman, Shepherd’s Hope’s president and CEO.

“We expect that number to rise to 25,000 by the end of this year,” she said.

This is at a time when the future of Medicaid expansion in Florida remains uncertain, leaving 800,000 people uninusred, because they don’t qualify for traditional Medicaid, earn too much to qualify for subsidies on the federal health insurance marketplace, yet can’t afford to buy health insurance.

“Shepherd’s Hope is a foundation for the community,” said Angela Ritten, a volunteer nurse practitioner who won one of the morning’s outstanding volunteer awards.