Partners in Hope
 
 
 
 
                           Envisioning Change                       Empowering People                      Encouraging Cooperation
 
About the “52*23 Health Network”
 
The “52*23 Health Network” is made up of health services providers, schools, churches and community members in the 78752 and 78723 zip code areas of east Austin (click here for map) who are interested in improving access to healthcare.
 
Texas has one of the highest levels of uninsured residents in the country (around 25%). In east Austin, many lack insurance, either because they are undocumented immigrants or because they are the “working poor” who make too much to qualify for assistance but lack medical benefits at work. For these people (many of them children), their primary care physician is the emergency room.
 
Healthcare providers in Austin are very interested in seeing this situation change, given that dispensing medicine through emergency rooms (mainly Brackenridge Hospital for east Austin) is expensive and drains hospitals of millions of unreimbursed dollars each year. It also causes people to skip preventive care.
 
The “52*23 Health Network” is already having an effect on this situation. At the recent HopeFest outreach event, which we helped organize, over 300 people began the process of getting insured through Medicaid, CHIP or the Medical Assistance Program. Local schools are also being connected to city health programs so that they can help their parents and kids get services. Even churches are learning how they can get “health ministries” going for their members.
 
 
 
 
 
 
February 6 from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. in Conference Room A of the St. John Community Center, 7500 Blessing Ave., 78752. For more information, call Julie Weeks at 512-797-4847 or e-mail her at juliew@austin.rr.com.
 
Meetings are normally the first Wednesday of each month.