The San Jose Clinic Is Here to Take Care of Those Left Behind by the Texas Health-Care Debate
Two years ago, Alma Saldierna's husband was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. As his central nervous system broke down, he was hit hardest on his left side, leaving him deaf in that ear. He was trapped in his own body with an incurable verdict, his life as a construction worker over.
Saldierna was doing filing and accounts for a small business that didn't offer insurance to its few employees. Her husband never had insurance and with him out of work there didn't seem to be any way to pay for the expensive doctor visits and medication he needed.
The couple found their way to the San José Clinic in Midtown, making the 27-mile drive from Cypress. Cost of treatment became manageable; doctor visits were assessed on a sliding scale of $15 to $35. Two years later, his illness is stable and she says she and her husband are happy with the care they receive
All of which is good, because when Alma, 52, came in for a check-up for herself last week, she was told she had a thyroid tumor and would have to undergo a biopsy to see if it was cancerous. A pink rose in hand, the mother of four children ranging in age from 21 to 29 seemed to be taking her latest news and what would happen next philosophically.
"You either live to survive or you have insurance. And I don't have the money to be able to afford insurance," she said in Spanish through a translator. "The service here is excellent. I don't know what I would do without it."
http://www.houstonpress.com/2013-11-14/news/san-jose-clinic-midtown/