This Phoenix health clinic is a lifeline for the uninsured
Dec 11, 2017, 5:05 AM | Updated: 12:36 pm
Rosa Maria Villasenor (left) recently visited the PACH clinic to check up on her diabetes. (KTAR News/Griselda Zetino)
(KTAR News/Griselda Zetino)
PHOENIX — Rosa Maria Villaseñor suffers from diabetes, is uninsured and for years had nowhere to go for medical care.
That changed when she heard about a small clinic called Phoenix Allies for Community Health, also known as PACH.
She was recently there for her weekly appointment.
“They checked my blood pleasure and sugar levels, and they did a routine analysis,” she said.
PACH has become a lifeline for people like Villaseñor who have no other place to go for medical care. The volunteer-run clinic provides primary care free of cost, regardless of the patient’s ability to pay or their immigration status.
“Eligibility for the clinic right now is that you have no ability to obtain any kind of subsidized insurance or you’re not eligible for any governmental programs to get healthcare,” said Amy McMullen, co-founder and clinic director at PACH.
PACH was founded in 2010 by a group of activists who got together during the debate over Arizona’s SB 1070, a law that required police officers to check the immigration status of individuals they suspected were undocumented.
The group of activists began attending protests over SB 1070 where they handed out waters to people and treated those affected by tear gas. Amy, who is a former EMT, and her husband, Bob, who is a physician’s assistant, joined the activists and eventually began holding health fairs.
Bob McMullen, the president and medical director of PACH, said the health fairs made them realize there was a high need for longitudinal care for medical conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, thyroid disease and depression.
He said people were not getting the care they needed “because of the cost of monthly prescriptions or monthly care.”
“So we, since our origin, have selectively recruited patients that have those conditions, because those conditions are the ones that lead to the long-term catastrophic conditions of heart attack and stroke,” he said.
PACH opened its first clinic in April 2013. Amy said with the help of volunteers, they remodeled a run-down house near downtown Phoenix and turned it into the PACH clinic.
Several years later, they relocated to their current location on Indian School Road and 27th Avenue in Phoenix.
Their patients are mostly Spanish-speaking immigrants, including some who are undocumented and some who have been green card holders for less than five years and don’t qualify for state or federal supported health programs. The PACH clinic also serves several immigrants from Africa and the Middle East.
Villaseñor said if PACH didn’t exist, she’d struggle to pay for her diabetes medications, one of which costs $500 a week but is provided to her by PACH for free.
“My health would be affected,” she said. “I would have to take my medication every other day to make it last longer because it’s so expensive.”
