Cooperation Stretches Public’s Dollars : Generosity of HMO, Doctors Allows School District to Open Clinic for Students

When the school doors swung open last week, students in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District were beneficiaries of a good example of cooperation between government and private businesses.

The state gave the district $400,000 for three years to operate a health-care clinic at the Rea Community Center in Costa Mesa. A health maintenance organization chipped in $70,000, and doctors contributed medical supplies. That stretches the dollars of a cash-strapped government.

The clinic opened in mid-August and schools from both Newport Beach and Costa Mesa referred students from families unable to afford services from private doctors. The students were inoculated against measles, polio, tuberculosis and other diseases, and received physical examinations and hearing, vision and reading tests.

An executive of the health care firm, PacifiCare, was right in noting that many people believe there is no need for such a program in Newport Beach, known for its affluent residents and high-priced stores.

But the area has few doctors willing to accept payments from Medi-Cal, which are far lower than those paid by private insurers, and has a large uninsured immigrant population.

School officials said the clinic reflected a new emphasis on having schools provide more extensive preventive health care to children from low-income families. That’s smart, since it is cheaper to prevent diseases than to treat them.

The value of the new program was aptly described by Haydee Bonales, whose daughter needed a variety of shots to enroll at TeWinkle Middle School. Bonales said her family struggles to pay rent and keep food on the table on their income of less than $1,500 a month, so the clinic was vital.

Officials sensibly decided to keep the clinic open throughout the school year, letting students concentrate on learning and not on health problems.