Jul. 11—Given the continuing high prices at the gas pump and the ripple effect those prices have across the economy, it's worth noting that one organization in Meadville has proven remarkably resistant to inflation: the Meadville Area Free Clinic.

For a quarter of a century, the clinic has kept prices the same — which is to say, the price for those using the clinic remains $0.

And on the occasion of its 25th anniversary, Meadville Area Free Clinic will hold a Community Health Fair at Active Aging, 1034 Park Ave., from 2 to 5 p.m. Thursday. In addition to invited speakers, info booths representing numerous health-related organizations, giveaway drawings and cake, various health screenings will be available, all of it — you guessed it — free.

"No customer has ever been charged a penny that's come to the free clinic," said Duane Koller, who is currently secretary and treasurer of the volunteer board that oversees the clinic. Along with then-Mayor Tony Petruso and Dr. David Kirkpatrick, Koller also played an instrumental role in launching the clinic in the late 1990s.

"This is a community celebration for something the community has really gotten behind," Koller said as he recalled fielding calls from other municipalities in the region looking for advice on similar efforts that have not always met with success. "This was a Meadville thing. To me that's the part of the story that's the most important thing."

Since 1997, the clinic has provided free primary health care services to what Koller referred to as "folks in between" — community members ranging from 18 to 65 years old who have no health insurance, Medical Assistance, Medicare or Veteran's Benefits. On the one hand, such people have financial resources that are solid enough to make them ineligible for the state's Medical Assistance program, but at the same time they don't receive health insurance benefits or can't afford to purchase insurance on their own.

Before the free clinic was available, Koller said, such residents typically went without preventative health care and wound up in the Meadville Medical Center emergency room when they found themselves in a health crisis — a crisis that in many instances could have been prevented if they had regular access to health care.

The free clinic was conceived as a way out of that cycle of health care avoidance and health care crisis, according to Koller.

Enough people still fall into that group of "folks in between" to keep the clinic's three volunteer doctors, one volunteer nurse practitioner and other volunteer staff members busy with 40 to 50 appointments each month, according to office manager Diane Craven.

But that's down significantly from the 800 to 1000 that the clinic was typically seeing a few years ago. The pandemic was less to blame for the drop, according to Craven, than the clinic's 2018 move from its longtime location on Chestnut Street between Market and Water streets to its current offices in the Meadville Medical Center's Poplar Street Medical Arts building, 505 Poplar St.

"We kind of lost our identity in Meadville when we moved in 2018," Craven said. "A lot of people thought we closed."

The Thursday celebration is meant in large part as a reminder to the community of the many health resources available, particularly the clinic, according to Craven.

It's a message that's familiar to keynote speaker Dr. Denise Johnson.

Before she became the state's physician general and acting secretary of Health, then-Meadville resident Johnson was chief medical officer at Meadville Medical Center. She was also a member and eventually chair of the board that oversees Meadville Area Free Clinic.

"At the Department of Health, we believe good physical and mental health is essential to so much in life and the ability to access care should be a human right — not a privilege," Johnson said.

But despite efforts to increase access to health care, Johnson acknowledged, "we know there are residents without access to health care because they don't qualify for it, or can't afford it."

"To fill that gap, free health clinics work to offer communities high quality support and care to improve the health outcomes for their patients, who may not have health insurance, including but not limited to the work of the Meadville Area Free Clinic over the last 25 years," Johnson added. "Health clinics work to advance the department's mission and commitment of creating a healthy Pennsylvania for all — including Pennsylvanians who do not have access to health care."

Mike Crowley can be reached at (814) 724-6370 or by email at .