Mississippi Delta doctor frustrated by state's resistance to health-care reform

Many health-care pundits have pointed out the irony that some of the areas that reform could help the most are the areas fighting it the hardest, and at least one rural health advocate is worried about that tension. Anne Brooks, left, a Roman Catholic nun who has run a health clinic in Tutwiler, Miss., for 27 years, "sees the nation's new health care law as a potentially happy turn in a long, hard journey," Noam Leevy of the Tribune Co.'s Washington Bureau reports. "But there's a good chance this story will end with another difficult twist in the road for Brooks and for Tutwiler," as Mississippi Republican Gov. Haley Barbour has "joined a lawsuit filed by GOP officials in several states seeking to overturn the law." (Los Angeles Times photo by Lance Murphy)

Barbour "campaigned on a promise to cut the health-care safety net to balance the state budget," Leevy writes. "Shortly afterward, Mississippi began requiring Medicaid recipients to submit to in-person interviews once a year, making it the only state with such a sweeping rule. In Tutwiler, the closest registration office is in nearby Sumner. It's open one day a week, on Tuesdays, from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., as well as the third Wednesday of month." The governor said the federal health-care overhaul "would prove disastrous" for Mississippi.

Four in 10 patients at the Tutwiler Clinic have no insurance at all. "When someone brings me a basket of squash, I'm happy," said Brooks, who received a medical degree at age 44 from Michigan State University's College of Osteopathic Medicine. In 2008, she collected $552,572 for delivering medical care, just over a quarter of the clinic's expenses, Leevy reports. The rest of her funding comes from private donations and grants. Brooks  told Leevy she's doubtful Mississippi leaders will take advantage of the federal help. "I just know I have to see my patients," she said, "It would be nice if someone could figure out a way to pay us for doing it." (Read more)