It's a Thursday night in downtown Gainesville. While the rain is pouring, 13 people are standing in line outside a nondescript building.
Like many Americans today, these 13 people cannot afford health insurance, so they come to the UF College of Medicine Equal Access Clinic, a free, student-run clinic offering basic medical services to the uninsured in the community.
The clinic is held every Thursday night from 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at the Family Practice Medical Group, located at 625 S.W. Fourth Ave.
Amanda Pearcy, co-director of the clinic, said the Equal Access Clinic differs from other area clinics because volunteers maintain personal relationships with patients.
"I recognize patients from week to week," Pearcy said. "They come and know you by name."
The clinic offers services in full primary medical care, follow-up medical care, administration of medications, blood pressure and blood sugar monitoring, anonymous HIV testing and psychiatry.
Every patient has a different reason for coming to the clinic.
Pamela Duey comes to receive a discount on her medication for high blood pressure. She is a graduate of UF and is employed but uninsured.
"It is a very slow process, so it would be nice if it was sped up," Duey said, "but I understand this is a free clinic, and these are students."
Pearcy said patients get frustrated with the system.
"Sometimes we can't see everyone," she said. "We just don't have the time and the resources."
Fritz Kalinowski, a security officer at Shands at AGH who sometimes works at the clinic, said the clinic tries not to turn anyone away.
"The last time I was here, it was just pouring down like tonight, and someone walked up right before we closed," Kalinowski said. "They took him back, saw him and had him out of here in pretty good time. It seemed like it worked well to me."
Pearcy said the students and faculty who volunteer at the clinic think that health care is something that everyone needs.
"Our slogan is 'Health care is a right, not a privilege,'" she said.
But not everyone has access to health care. According to the 2004 Florida Health Insurance Study, the statewide percentage of uninsured Floridians under age 65 is 19.2 percent.
In Alachua County, 13.4 percent are uninsured, said Dr. R. Paul Duncan, principle investigator of the study and professor and chairman of UF's Department of Health Services Research, Management and Policy.
Duncan said the uninsured cannot afford the high cost of health insurance, and family coverage in the U.S. costs about $12,000 a year, he said.
Duncan said generally, the uninsured earn a low income, work in the service sector, are relatively young and are minorities.
"They're not people who are destitute," he added. "They're people who work regular full-time jobs."
Duncan said health care can make all the difference for a person's well-being.
He said insured people are healthier than uninsured people and are more likely to get the right kind of medical care, in the right setting, at the right time.
This results in lower mortality rates, he said.
"They are better off by any reasonable standard," he said.
But even with insurance, a person might not have access to health care.
Living in a community without doctors, having no transportation to get to the doctor or having a fear of doctors will not help even if a person is well insured, Duncan said.
"Just having an insurance card in your wallet doesn't guarantee you access," he said.
Health care access is an issue people should care about, Duncan said.
"We should care in the same way we would care if people didn't have access to clean water."
Pearcy said she donates her time because she cares about the uninsured in the community.
"It is an altruistic idea to care about your fellow man," she said. "If you just care about yourself, you aren't going to get gratitude or enjoyment out of life."
Adam Carter, a first year medical student, speaks with diabetes patient Katrina Thomas during the free medical clinic hours at the UF Family Practice Medical Group on Thursday.
