Initiative: Healthier approach to spending

Andrew Glazer

COSTA MESA -- He sat on a folding metal chair, waiting to have his teeth

pulled and dentures installed in the standing room-only lobby of the

area’s lone free medical clinic, Share Our Selves.

With his back slightly hunched, 69-year-old Paul Dimmick sat quietly

among 40 other sniffling, sneezing and snoring patients as names were

called and children played in the aisles.

He said he didn’t mind the wait -- the procedure will allow him to chew

his food.

Since he retired as a computer engineer, he has been without health

insurance. A veteran of the Korean War, Dimmick receives free medical

treatment at a Veterans Affairs hospital, but “they don’t do dental

there,” he said. And his only source of income, a monthly $613 Social

Security check, wouldn’t come close to covering the $4,500 procedure.

“I need this place,” said Dimmick, who lives in Santa Ana Heights.

There are many, many more like Dimmick, but Share Our Selves is forced to

turn away nearly half of the uninsured patients seeking dental care

there, and nearly as many seeking treatment for chronic illnesses such as

diabetes and asthma, said Jean Forbath, the clinic’s director.

“We’re scrounging and struggling all the time for funding and more

volunteers,” Forbath said.

Countywide, demand is high for free or affordable health care. As many as

425,000 residents lack health care, according to the results of a survey

of 5,000 county residents released a year ago.

So she and dozens of other local health-care providers, advocates for the

poor, and community leaders and activists are urging the Orange County

Board of Supervisors to throw more money their way.

In November, the supervisors voted to spend most of an estimated $765

million the county received in a settlement with tobacco companies on

jails and paying debts. Representatives from Los Angeles and San Diego

counties voted to spend most of their shares on expanding health

programs.

None of the supervisors were available for comment Friday.

Next week, the activists will begin campaigning for a ballot initiative

calling for the county to spend 80% of the tobacco money on community

health centers and anti-smoking education.

Last month, a countywide coalition turned in more than 120,000 signatures

to the county Registrar of Voters -- 40,000 more than the amount required

to put the measure on the November ballot.

Health-care activists said they gathered the signatures after

negotiations with the board on how to spend the money failed.

“I know a lot of people don’t like ballot initiatives,” said Dennis

Clark, president of the board of directors of the Health Care Council of

Orange County, a coalition of health-care providers. “But we tried to

negotiate and there was no alternative.”

Supervisor Cynthia Coad announced Thursday that she had a new proposal,

offering half of the tobacco money for specified health programs. But

Clark said the negotiations are over, the signatures are in and voters

will decide in November how the money should be spent.

In the Share Our Selves waiting room, 67-year-old Ernesto Garcia, wearing

a frayed cowboy hat and read a tattered Western novel, said he would cast

his vote in favor of the measure.

Garcia visits the clinic each month for insulin treatments, which he

would otherwise be unable to afford.

“No money, no honey,” he said. “This clinic helps me so much.”