PHOENIXVILLE, Pa. -
Affordable medical care is not easy to find. But there's a doctor's office in Chester County where you won't go broke.
But after 10 years in business, "The Clinic" is in need of some urgent care of its own.
It's housed in an old Victorian in Phoenixville, and it's arguably the most popular doctor's office in the county. At least according to Mary Jo Warner, who's been a patient there for the past four years.
How does she feel about her doctor? "She's more than just my doctor, she's my friend," Warner told Fox 29.
Her doctor Lorna Stuart says that's because "I don't have to spend hours on insurance paperwork.
I don't have to code things. I don't have to record things in a computer program. I talk to the patients to make the diagnosis."
So what does that kind of service cost?
"The clinic is based on what you can pay, what you can afford, whether it be a dollar or $100," Warner explained.
The Clinic is for patients without health insurance, people who might not get any medical care otherwise.
After a decade treating thousands of patients, and saving lives, big changes are looming.
You might think the clinic would become obsolete or unnecessary after President Obama's new health care law takes effect. But even then, an estimated 23 million Americans would still be without medical insurance, and in need of a places like The Clinic.
"There will always be people who will fall through the gaps," Dr. Stuart explained. "These are people who might change where they live and it takes eight weeks for their new insurance to catch up with them. People who are new immigrants to the country. People who haven't done their paperwork in time."
The clinic is also facing a huge rent increase, from $1 a year to $18,000 a year, because of financial hardships at the church next door, which owns the building.
"They gave us for 10 years $1 rent," The Clinic's Executive Director Thomas Burd said. "So for 10 years they helped us to move the organization forward."
Space is also at a premium. "We even had a dental program that wanted to volunteer to come over and provide free dental care," Burd said. "We had no place to put them."
The clinic is hoping for more support and bigger donations, so everyone in the community will have access to a doctor, no matter what may happen with health care in this country.
