Contact: Margaret Katz, The Community Foundation, 303-442-0436
Pete Leibig, Clinica Campesina, 303-665-2599
Sherry Wasserman, People's Clinic, 303-449-0858, ext. 115
PHOTOS AVAILABLE FROM THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION BY REQUEST

BOULDER, Colo. - Although Boulder County's uninsured population can receive primary medical care at one of the community health clinics here, many cannot afford the prescription medications that are part of their follow-up care.

"Sometimes something even as simple as a child's ear infection, it won't get treated. If you're low income, even purchasing an $8 to $10 prescription for antibiotics that day may not be possible," said Pete Leibig, executive director of Clinica Campesina.

Patients of Clinica Campesina, as well those at People's Clinic, will be the beneficiaries of a new fund of The Community Foundation, established to help meet the prescription needs of medically uninsured patients. Wolfgang Thron, whose wife, Ann, was a physician at People's Clinic in Boulder for many years, set up the fund to help the two clinics provide prescription drug access for their patients. Dr. Wolfgang Thron was a professor of mathematics at C.U. Boulder.

Sherry Wasserman, executive director of People's Clinic, said the gift from the Throns was especially significant given Ann's role there.

"Ann was a physician here in the early 1970s, and she was with the clinic from 1971-1990. She worked for many years for $6.50 an hour, and everyone who knew her can remember her walking to work with a backpack every day," Wasserman said.

Ann Thron died in 1991.

"I don't know if I've ever known a person who was more consistently talked about as one of the finest people they ever knew," Wasserman said.

Although People's Clinic stocks $80,000 of pharmaceuticals annually, and employs someone to help patients apply for free or reduced medications from pharmaceutical companies, it still doesn't meet patients' needs. In fact, People's prescription drug program had been forced to stop accepting new patients. This gift will enable the clinic to reopen the program, Wasserman said.

"Now we are going to be able to establish this ongoing position to provide hundreds of thousands of dollars of medications," Wasserman said. She said a particular focus will be on providing needed medications to diabetic patients, who are at risk for so many complications without proper medication.

Of the 4,000 patients Clinica Campesina cares for each year, Leibig estimates that approximately 2,500 are uninsured and have low incomes. Two thirds of these patients need some kind of prescription, but the rising cost of pharmaceuticals has made it increasingly difficult to make sure people have access, he said.

Leibig believes this is a trend that will continue to grow, as chronic illnesses are increasingly treated with expensive new drugs.

"Through this fund, we'll be able to provide pharmaceuticals to more low income families and provide higher cost pharmaceuticals for our chronically ill patients," Leibig said. "This will make a big difference."

For more information, or if you would like to contribute to the Prescription Drug Fund, please contact The Community Foundation at 303- 442-0436 or via e-mail, info@commfound.org.
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