Covering uninsured is year-round job at Detroit clinic and elsewhere

Published: 2007-04-27

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- At Cabrini Clinic in the Corktown neighborhood of Detroit, "every week is Cover the Uninsured Week," says Mercy Sister Mary Ellen Howard, who has directed the free clinic for more than a dozen years. In a city with some 200,000 uninsured adults, the clinic -- formally known as the St. Frances Cabrini Clinic of Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church -- provides medical care, prescription drug assistance and mental health services to about 150 people a week, completely free of charge. "We're not billing anybody," Sister Mary Ellen told Catholic News Service. "If you've got Medicaid, you've got options" that those without any health coverage do not have, she added. But Sister Mary Ellen would like everyone to have more health care options and so she joined an unlikely coalition of union members, small-business owners, insurers, medical professionals and religious leaders at one of hundreds of events around the country marking the fifth annual Cover the Uninsured Week April 23-29. The week is aimed at raising awareness about the nearly 46 million uninsured Americans and mobilizing a commitment to solve the problem.

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