Fed Financial

is there any place where low income can see a doctor for non emergency help?

my cousin lives in orlando,he ia laid of from his job and may be he will start as part time,and his wife works part time as substitute teacher in orlando,they have four kids,from 19 to7 years of age,have no health insurance.does any one knows where his wife can get medical help to see a dr without draining them out the money,which is very hard to for them to survive,now.she is suffering a terrible neck pain but can't afford to see a private doctor.they might not be entitled for medicaid just because they are not poor poor poor,they need some thing where they can charge according to their financial condition.he asked me because i got the help from some kind hearted people on yahoo answer,and i live in miami,my situation is different because i laid off from the job with a full year health insurance coverage and,and have only few month to be covered with medicare.i got help calling some place shine.now i do not have any information to help my cousin's family.please help them to get

Public Comments

1. If they don't qualify for Medicaid, they should still see if the kids qualify for Florida's SCHIP. We're paying for it, they might as well use it. As to adults for now, options include: look for a clinic run by a med school and/or nursing department. The school doesn't have to be close by for there to be such a clinic and those are sliding-fee scale and reduced prices. There may be "free" clinics which are rarely free, but again, far lower cost--the county health department should know about those. There are many grocery, drugstores, and WalMarts that have walk-in clinics and they charge reduced rates. If she needs x-rays they may know of a place with reduced rates as well. In all cases, typically if you pay in full at the time of service you will get a reduced rate (probably about 30-50%). Keep all such expenses, very good chance you can get a deduction on taxes as well. If they go to a church, that church might have a parish nurse--these nurses tend to know who can help in these situations. If anyone needs a prescription, WalMart has over 300 drugs which are $4 or $9 and many other pharmacies are now meeting or beating the price. Typically there are generics that will work and any doc should consider writing one of those (and the WalMart list is on the web site). Good luck.
2. Try the Health Department or call a teaching hospital, the residents there might have a program for you. Also, try the Social Services department at the HOSPITAL, they have many contacts and may be able to help you.
3. She could call the health department and see if there are any low cost clinics around. Or, contact her church, the St. Vincent de Paul Society might help out with medical bills. Besides that, maybe the family can just take up a collection.
4. Another option is discount health benefits. You don't have the high cost of the monthly Ins rates, co-pays or deductables. The monthy rate is very reasonable for anyone to have. Plus all on-going health problems are accepted. You can go here to find out more about it: www.everyonebenefits.com/trodgers