What is the Urban Health Initiative?

Question

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/21/AR2008082103646.html

I thought Republicans neglected the poor.

Answer 1

Free condoms

Answer 2

also illustrates how that circle, and particularly Michelle, dealt with an intractable social problem that confronts many urban areas: How much care should large, nonprofit hospitals offer the poor in return for tax-exempt status?

The medical center markets its initiative as an effort to improve patient health for the poor and at the same time free its resources for emergencies and complicated procedures. The Urban Health Initiative also could save the hospital substantial amounts of money, by removing the nonpaying poor patients from its emergency room.

"An ER visit for something that's not an emergency costs the medical center $1,200," said Kelly Sullivan, a hospital spokeswoman. "That's sucking up dollars in health care that we don't all have to just blow through carelessly.

It's actually a great plan.  Getting someone who traditionally doesn't have a GP to have a local one in their neighborhood.  This does a couple of things.

It helps the person get preventative care, which not only results in less costly ER trips for the tax payer, but also has a greater potential to stop diseases that could have ended up costing the tax payers money in the form of SSI later down the road.