
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 14, 1990                   TAG: 9004160201
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FIRST LADY

THE ROANOKE Valley has ample reason to be proud of its Free Clinic, and the Roanokers responsible for the clinic's success had ample reason to show off the new quarters this week to first lady Barbara Bush.

But along with the pride, it ought also to be kept in mind that voluntarism, even at its most effective, is only part of the solution to the social problems - including millions of Americans' lack of access to adequate health care - that plague the country.

The first lady was in town to dedicate the clinic's new home, which itself is one legitimate source of pride. Though the new quarters are just a hop, skip and jump down the street from the clinic's old home, the distance by some measures is light years.

The clinic long since had outgrown its old quarters, the first floor of a stately Old Southwest mansion that had not been designed for a medical facility anyway. The new home is a former orthopedic clinic; in all, including substantial renovation and updated equipment, the new quarters represent a $2 million investment.

The move was made possible in large part by a gift of more than $1 million from philanthropist Marion Via; the place has been renamed the Bradley Free Clinic of Roanoke Valley in honor of Via's father. About $1 million also was raised from the community at large.

The capital-outlay money is in addition, of course, to the contributions that have enabled the clinic to stay in operation for the past 15 years. Those contributions have come not only in the form of cash but also in the form of donations of time by local health-care professionals. The fact that the clinic has served 60,000 patients, working poor people who in most instances simply would not have been served otherwise, is as much a cause for pride as are the new quarters.

But the pride also stems from the fact that the Roanoke Valley is unusual in having so successful a clinic. And while that speaks well of Roanoke, it also suggests the enormity of the problem nationwide.

Leaders of the Free Clinic are working on the larger problem, with plans to establish a foundation that could help free clinics get off the ground elsewhere. But every city may not have a Marion Via, nor a pool of contributors of sufficient size, nor a health-care community quite so willing - or, sometimes, able - to cooperate.

Moreover, why must adequate health care for many working people depend at all on the charitable instincts of others? What has gone wrong that the American economy structured in such a way that many of its contributing members cannot automatically share in the basic benefits that a reasonably prosperous economy should provide?

To raise such questions is not to suggest that the answers are manifestly clear - and is certainly not to suggest that the burden of answering them should be on the Free Clinic's shoulders. The burden belongs to all Americans, including the man who is president of the United States.

And while voluntarism is not the whole solution, those responsible for the Free Clinic's success in Roanoke have made themselves a big part of the solution. In doing so, they are several big steps ahead of most of the rest of us.

by CNB