Augusta clinic offers affordable health care for people with no insurance

AUGUSTA, Ga. - Affordable health care for people without insurance. Doctors at Christ Community Health Services say no insurance, no problem.

"I was laid off, insurance got cancelled," said Ronnie Watts, patient.

He is one of thousands of people living in Georgia-Carolina who is unemployed and has no health insurance.

"There are 75,000 uninsured people between Augusta and Aiken," said Dr. Grant Scarborough, Christ Community Health Services.

Numbers, Dr. Scarborough says are getting worse as people keep losing their jobs. Two years ago, he started Christ Community Health Services to help people who don't have health insurance get medical attention at an affordable price.

"You can consider us well paid ministry or poorly paid physicians. I want to use medicine as a gift. I want to use it in a way that I care for the poor in the community," said Scarborough.

Some patients are seen free of charge, as the health care is based on a patient's ability to pay.

"What we look at is household income and the number of people in the house. Then we use a formula setup by the federal government and patients can pay anywhere from $20 to 50 percent of their visit," said Ronald Skenes, Christ Community Health Services.

It's a payment plan that makes life a little easier on patients like Watts. The demand for affordable health care is so great that Christ Community Health Services is expanding into the old Widow's Home on Green Street which will allow them to see twice as many patients.

Christ Community Health Services is hoping to move into the new building in 2010. The clinic depends on donations to stay open.

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