Clifford Thomas and his family have lost four relatives to the coronavirus pandemic, including his beloved mother Beverly. Beverly, a former middle school teacher, had suffered from chronic health problems throughout her life and was unable to afford regular medical care when she was forced to quit her job due to her disability. Her last request to her son was to keep his family healthy.
But in Albany, Georgia, fulfilling that promise is a battle. The city is served by a single major hospital system: Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital. Market control and Georgia’s strict limits on Medicaid leave nearly a third of Albany’s residents uninsured, one of the state’s poorest cities.
Poor access to quality, affordable care contributes to deep mistrust in the system. Residents like Thomas see Phoebe as more of a hindrance to their health than a safety net. He has given up on finding medical insurance or, without it, finding a doctor to treat him.
Then he started getting sick.
There are millions of people like Thomas across the country, and dozens of places like Albany where high percentages of the population suffer from chronic but treatable conditions and where the primary institution is the hospital. ProPublica is investigating the country’s health care crisis in a five-part series called “Sickness in Hospital Streets.” You can read or listen to the entire series here. Watch this short documentary that takes a close look at one man’s efforts to overcome the obstacles to caregiving.
