For the last dozen years Mary Krcmar filled her prescriptions free of charge at the city’s southwest-side health clinic not far from her house in Gage Park. But a few months ago the city announced that sometime in 1994 it would stop providing free medication to seniors who visit the clinic, now called the Southwest Community Family Wellness Center.
The center, at 4150 W. 55th St., was built in the 1970s as part of Mayor Richard J. Daley’s ambitious plan to provide free drop-in health facilities throughout the city. Several doctors were on duty, offering a wide range of services for people of all ages. But by early 1993 the clinic was seeing fewer patients in a month than clinics in other parts of the city saw every week. Moreover, for the last couple years the clinic had been used exclusively by senior citizens, as families and younger residents went to other, privately operated clinics in the area.
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The reaction at the clinic was shock and fear. One longtime patient, a widow, cried; others pleaded for help. The patients at the clinic were much more dependent on the program than the policymakers at City Hall might have imagined. Many politicians and bureaucrats apparently view the southwest side as a solid mass of middle-income wage earners who abhor all social programs. In fact, the population in many of these communities is rapidly aging. The sons and daughters have moved to the suburbs, and many of the parents left behind are retirees struggling to make do on fixed pension plans. The widow of a retired assembly-line worker, for instance, might make $550 a month. After rent, heat, phone, and food, there isn’t much left for anything else.
Ramski’s protests finally persuaded the company to continue the plan. But he has to pay $68 a month in premiums, and he no longer gets many services, including dental care. But Ramski is luckier than many retirees. Under his plan he can obtain generic drugs for $7 per prescription and name brands for $8 through the mail. “It takes seven to ten days to receive the drugs from the company, so it better not be something I need in a hurry. Some people are paying $ 1.10 for a pill. We said to one guy, ‘Jerry, why don’t you go to Mexico?’ You try to laugh, but it’s not really funny.”
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Lloyd DeGrane.
