When people talk about the failures of the American health care system, the stories can feel distant. Numbers. Policies. Insurance plans.
For many families in Northwest Florida, the reality is much closer to home. It is a missed doctor's appointment. A prescription left unfilled. A growing fear that getting sick will cost more than they can afford.
In Pensacola, a small clinic is changing that. Health and Hope Clinic has only five full-time employees. Everyone else is a volunteer. It offers free medical, dental, mental health and pharmacy services for anyone without health insurance.
Freeman Scott was nearly 60 when he lost his high-paying job. Then he was diagnosed with cancer. He was too young for Medicare.
"I had absolutely no coverage whatsoever," Scott said. "There are many, many, many senior people who are in that very vulnerable area and don't have coverage. Yes, you can get COBRA, but who can afford it when you're unemployed? It's way out of the realm."
(COBRA, or Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, is a federal law that allows a temporary extension of employer health insurance after certain qualifying life events, such as job loss. The employee is responsible for the entire cost, however.)
As symptoms worsened, Scott struggled emotionally.
"I was not mentally prepared for what happened," Scott said. "Not just physically, but socially, psychologically, none of it."
A referral led him to Health and Hope Clinic. Volunteer doctors and nurses took over his care and charged him nothing. Today, Scott is cancer-free.
"I wouldn't be sitting here had I not been able to get that health care through this clinic," he said. "This clinic saved my life."
Stories like Scott's have become more common at Health and Hope.
When executive sirector Sally Bergosh arrived in 2019, the clinic saw about 600 patients a year. That number has since quadrupled.
"We're now way over 2,400 patients," Bergosh said. "So that is quite an amazing amount of growth in a very short amount of time."
The clinic's services have expanded with the need. Patients receive medical care, dental work, mental health counseling and help paying for prescriptions. Last year, the clinic provided $4.5 million worth of medications.
Most of the clinic's medical staff are volunteers. Bergosh said they were drawn to the chance to practice on their own terms.
"That's a big draw for some of the providers," she said. "It's allowing them to really get back to why they went into medicine to begin with."
Health and Hope serves one of Florida's poorest counties, Escambia. Bergosh said financial hardship is a common thread among patients, but it has never been a reason to deny care.
"We really do have a lot of folks that fall through the cracks that are underserved," she said. "We've not had to turn away patients because of finances."
Volunteer nurse Sam Furin recalled a phone call from the clinic's pathology company. She was told that one of her patients had cancer. She asked what to do next. The answer was simple. Bring the patient in for treatment.
Furin said the patient was frightened but full of gratitude.
"The gratefulness on her face that we caught this cancer, and that it's not costing her a dime, changed the way that I see what I do here," Furin said. "She told me afterward that my presence in that room changed how she feels coming into this clinic."
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