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Around $3 million uninsured Floridians struggle to find adequate healthcare in the state. As Matt Galka tells us, mostly volunteer run free clinics are hoping funding from the legislature can help them serve more people.

With county health department care declining, uninsured Floridians have limited options. Theresa White and Meg Lokey work with free clinics in Clearwater and are hoping to change that.

“We see people who don’t have insurance, don’t qualify for government programs, government assistance. We are their safety net. There’s a big gap still even with the Affordable Care Act,” said Lokey.

White and Lokey are helping the Florida Association of Free and Charitable clinics lobby the legislature in hopes of getting state funding for the 90 clinics around the state.

“Most of them don’t have jobs, a lot of them don’t have the ability to go to a dentist, to fix their teeth, to get dental services that they need to get a job. So our services helps increase their chances of being able to get work,” said White.

The legislature approved $9 million for the charity care last year, but it was ultimately vetoed by the Governor.

Palm Beach County Medical Society CEO Tenna Wiles says that more than 125,000 Floridians received free care last year.  She says the vetoed money could have helped even more.

“They find themselves without coverage at all, this could be cases of people needing neurosurgery, we’ve performed open heart surgery on our patients. Our physicians and our volunteers provide this free of cost,” she said.

Wiles says that nearly $160 million dollars worth of health care services were provided free to the uninsured through the clinics last year.