The state has enrolled nearly 400,000 residents in Medicaid since Gov. John Bel Edwards approved a statewide expansion of the program last year, a feat that health department Secretary Rebekah Gee called one of the highlights of her career. 

But enrolling new residents, Gee said, is just the first step toward improving the system. She said the next step — and one fraught with challenges — is providing access to primary care in every community.

Residents who don’t have access to primary care for reasons like living far away from clinics or being homebound often see minor issues develop into serious conditions because they don’t catch them early on, Gee said.

She said the state is working to increase availability to patients who are homebound, remote or otherwise limited. “There’s no excuse in a country that’s as wealthy as ours for anyone to die from something that’s preventable,” she said. 

Gee said one solution is increasing awareness and access to government-backed community health centers — which she called the “foot soldiers” of the health initiative. These centers provide primary care to low-income residents at a fraction of the price through federal grant money.

One center, SWLA Center for Health Services, operates facilities in four locations: Lafayette, Lake Charles, Oberlin and Crowley. It employees 160 people and serves 23,000 residents each year.  

The center offers internal medicine, pediatric, women’s health, dentistry, podiatry, psychiatry, pharmaceutical and other services. It received a perfect score from federal funders in 2016 — a “rare occurrence” nationwide, according to CEO Tommie Anderson.

Gee applauded the regional health center during a community meeting at the facility Tuesday for providing high-quality primary care at each of its locations. “This place is phenomenal,” she said. “Don’t take them for granted.”

She said she was particularly impressed with the quality of the fitness center, which costs $15 month to join and includes personal training. “If I was a member of this community, I’d be a member of this gym,” she said. 

Anderson said the center serves both insured and uninsured residents and has room for more patients. He noted that it receives about 30 percent of its funding in federal grant money, about 70 percent of which is up for approval this year.

If the grant money is cut before the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1, the center would have to make difficult decisions to stay afloat, he said.

Cuts to Medicaid, also a possibility this year, could hurt the center as well because many of its patients are on Medicaid and wouldn’t be able to afford private insurance.

Gee said there’s no need for cuts to Medicaid, a program proven to save lives. If Congress wants to eliminate wasteful spending, she said, it should focus on the pharmaceutical industry, where drug companies are “taking people to the cleaners” by inflating their prices.

Resident Elliot Sterling suggested at the meeting that the industry cut costs by shifting its focus from “health care to self care.”

“If we all focused on educating on how not to become ill, we’d save gobs and gobs of money and prevent suffering,” Elliot said. 

Gee agreed with Elliot but pointed out that providers are “making a lot of money” on health care. Teaching residents to care for themselves would cut into their profits — a conflict of interest she said the health department is addressing.

Another resident, Emily Ashworth, a wellness nurse coordinator for the city, asked how the center planned to serve new neighborhoods being built around the five-parish area as a result of economic growth.

Anderson said he will continue to evaluate potential sites but noted that areas must have a certain population and income distribution before a center can open there.

The event was one of hundreds held in honor of National Health Centers Week. Another will be 11 a.m.-1 p.m. today, Aug. 16, in the Oberlin Library, 320 S. Sixth St.

For more information on SWLA Center for Health Services, visit the center at 2000 Opelousas St. or call 439-9983.