Pennsylvania lawmakers are in the process of reviewing two competing health care proposals. Governor Ed Rendell's $1.4 billion proposal is designed to essentially provide nothing more than insurance cards for 207,000 currently uninsured Pennsylvanians. A newly introduced Senate proposal, HealthNET PA, would cost the state $100 million and would provide actual care to 507,000 currently uninsured residents.

The keystone of the HealthNET PA plan is a $50 million investment in community health clinics. These clinics, one of which I started, provide vital care such as scheduled physician appointments, specialty appointments (including gynecological, optometry, gastroenterology, orthopedics, mental health and podiatry), labs, X-rays, Ct- Scans, MRIs, medications and much more. At a fraction of the cost of health insurance, these health clinics provide real care to real people.

Having worked in a clinic for over 10 years, I can personally attest to the success of this model. Nationally, health clinics raise $300 million per year and provide over $3 billion in care. My clinic operates on a budget of $164,000 and provides service to over 6,000 individuals. Free clinics are a very low cost method of taking care of individuals who cannot afford to purchase private insurance but don't quite qualify for government subsidized healthcare which is available to 2 million people through medical assistance or Adult Basic coverage.

HealthNET PA is a comprehensive approach that takes aim at the real factors causing the rapid increase in health care costs. Particularly, the expansion of health clinics will decrease emergency room visits and uncompensated care costs for our hospitals by getting people the preventive care they need before minor ailments become major problems.

Financially, Pennsylvanians cannot afford the governor's health care plan. Philosophically, we need to stop focusing on ways to enroll as many people as possible in health insurance plans that everyone agrees are too expensive and provide more expansive benefits than the policies that most taxpayers have and start focusing on ways to make people healthy. The people of Pennsylvania need care, not insurance cards.

Dr. Zane Gates,

Altoona

n Dr. Zane Gates is medical director of Partnering for Health Services in Altoona.