Meadville Area Free Clinic celebrates 25 years
Jul. 15—They say the best things in life are free. If so, there was plenty cause to celebrate Thursday as the Meadville Area Free Clinic celebrated its 25th anniversary with a community health fair.
The Active Aging Center in downtown Meadville was packed full with booths offering health-themed games and giving out medical information.
The event was highlighted by a keynote speech from Dr. Denise Johnson, Pennsylvania's acting secretary of health and physician general and both a former chief medical officer at Meadville Medical Center and a former member of the clinic's board.
Johnson said she continues to "applaud" the clinic's "commitment to increasing equity in health care" through its efforts. The free clinic provides free primary health care services to people between the ages of 18 to 65 who do not have health insurance, Medical Assistance, Medicare or Veteran's Benefits. Such people often make too much money to qualify for assistance programs, but not enough to afford health insurance.
"We also know there are many individuals who are choosing between health care needs and basic necessities," Johnson said. "Basic necessities like food or shelter, and they're having to make that choice."
Johnson said access to needed health care should be "a right, not a privilege." She said when the founders of the free clinic — Duane Koller, former Meadville Mayor Tony Petruso and Dr. David Kirkpatrick — formed the nonprofit in 1997, they "believed that health care was a human right and they decided to do something about it."
Johnson celebrated the efforts of the clinic's volunteers who give up their time to provide for their neighbors who don't have access to health insurance. It is through the effort of these volunteers that the free clinic is able to stay true to its namesake.
"After all of these years, the services of the free clinic are still just that," she said. "They're free because of the generosity of all of you."
She also highlighted those organizations that support the clinic, mentioning the United Way and Highmark Foundation specifically.
Speaking with The Meadville Tribune after her speech, Johnson said it was great to be able to come back to Crawford County to join in the celebration. Now given a wider view of health care concerns across Pennsylvania in her new role, Johnson said there are "gaps" in every area when it comes to health care, and that it was "refreshing" to see a community come together to address it.
Koller had a positive impression of how the celebration went, calling it "amazing." He told the Tribune that the idea for the free clinic came from a health care conference he attended in South Carolina where a similar such organization had been founded.
At the time the clinic was founded, Koller said many people would be brought to the Meadville Medical Center emergency room with conditions that could have been stopped with preventative care, but the patients couldn't afford it. Stopping such instances from happening is among the clinic's chief goals.
"There are still folks who don't have health insurance and we don't want them crossing their fingers and hoping it's OK," he said.
While the number of patients at the clinic has decreased compared to past years, the group's work remains important and evolving. One development in its more recent history which has benefitted the nonprofit is working with Dispensary of Hope, a Nashville organization that provides medicine to people who cannot afford it.
Through all the 25 years he has worked to keep the free clinic open, there is one part Koller always remains proud of.
"There free clinic has never charged anybody a penny," he said.
Meadville Area Free Clinic is located at 505 Poplar St., which is the Meadville Medical Center's Poplar Street Medical Arts building. For more information about the group, call (814) 333-3932.
Sean P. Ray can be reached at (814) 724-6370 or by email at .
