The Private Option is helping Arkansans. But don’t take it from us. Take it from Dr. Bill Wells, who has been helping low-income patients in and around Heber Springs for years. Dr. Wells practices at the Christian Health Center, where he says people come from about 55 or 60 different zip codes just to get some form of affordable care.
The Christian Health Center heals more than 3,500 poverty-stricken families in Cleburne, Stone, and surrounding counties. They serve the working poor who don’t qualify for Medicaid or Medicare.
“We’ve had nights when we’ve had enough patients and providers that we’ve had to expand our nurse’s triage station back into one of the bathrooms,” Dr. Wells says. “This gives you some indication of how great the need for care has been in this are because of the lack of health insurance.”
“We’re very thankful that the Private Option has been made available and really are hoping for it to continue so that we don’t have to reinvent this wheel in a year or two. I really urge all of our state legislature to look at this long and hard and to work on helping to make this, if not the perfect solution, one that we can live with and improve on as time goes by.”