Student Healthcare

In the Dallas-Forth Worth area, Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District and John Peter Smith Health Network joined to provide healthcare to the students. JPS is the county hospital for Tarrant County in Forth Worth, Texas. As of January 16, 2008, the clinic will serve all students and their siblings up to the age of 18 that are in the GCISD. The clinic will treat acute conditions, minor injuries, give immunization and physicals. The agreement between the district and JPS is that the district will provide space and all repairs, and JPS will provide practitioners, medical staffs and supplies. Students with insurances will pay the co-pay and students without insurance will pay $5 for an office visit. The clinic is having a smooth start.

This consolidation is important to the low-income families and families with or without health insurances. Students will have access to the health care provider and it will be affordable. It is believe to decrease the number of absences. The school district spent more than $127,000 to remodel the building. The issue is not about spending or making money, the main concern is about students being healthy and getting correct medical attention. By getting immunization, physicals, medicine will help prevent further health problems and educate the students to stay healthy. A newsletter sent out to all students’ home and parents are informed.

We hear it on the news, in social conversation, and presidential candidates’ speak. We all know that medical care is unaffordable. But what have the government done about this problem? Health care CAN be affordable. I work at a family practice clinic and our prices are specially design to service the community and to be affordable. It is ridiculous what practitioners are charging for service and fees.

This is one of the first steps that all county should do for all students that are in their district. The potential benefits are keeping our children healthy and preventing disease or illness. However, if this was the perfect solution, it would have been done before and every county would have done it. There some downside to this, such as expenses, staffing, the size of the population and more. I do believe that the problem will improve. The problem cannot be solved over night nor does the solution can fix everywhere in the United States. By taking a large problem, fixing a small portion of it and later fixing more, is a great start. This small portion begins with one school district and one country hospital.