Newsletter Updates
» from zarephath to antigua
Saturday, September 10, 2005 - Press Release
(Photo of hospital available - click to view)
The Zarephath Health Center www.zhcenter.org in central New Jersey is a faith-based out-patient medical facility that established two years ago to provide free health care to the poor and uninsured. There are now four physicians and about 20 volunteers who regularly donate their time to serve those in need. Now their mission has broadened as they have just been commissioned to develop a business plan and a team to operate a brand new hospital in the Caribbean island of Antigua. On September 16th, Mr. Baldwin Spencer, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda plans to attend the second annual Benefit Banquet of the Zarephath Health Center at the Doubletree Hotel in Somerset, NJ. There he will see and hear the work and vision of the volunteers.
In August of this year, after a series of remarkable circumstances, Rev. Chris Pierce of the Emanuel Reformed Episcopal Church in Somerville and Consul General MacChesney Emanuel introduced ZHC founders, Drs. John and Alieta Eck, MD, to the Honorable Baldwin Spencer, the Prime Minister of the English speaking sovereign Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda. They had learned that Antigua has a brand new four-story, 1000 room, 200+ bed hospital facility that had never been used. The Antiguan government officials had read the ZHC website and liked what they saw. This meeting resulted in the Zarephath Health Center being given a four month window in which to present a business plan to equip and operate the new facility, Mount St. John's Hospital, built under the last regime. The concept would be to introduce medical tourism to the Caribbean, where Americans and Canadians would come for care. Any profits would go toward treating the poor, sometimes imported from South American countries, identified and sent by missionaries. Another goal would be the upgrading of the current government facility, Holberton Hospital, a building that has been allowed to deteriorate. The people of Antigua and Barbuda are offered free care through the British-type socialized medicine system.
The Ecks note that New Jersey has major problems with health care, with burdensome medical malpractice premiums, the most costly health insurance premiums in the nation, and the harsh treatment of the uninsured. For example, a recent patient from the Zarephath Health Center was referred to a local hospital for prostate surgery. He received a bill for $28,000. Medicare would pay just $3,200, and commercial insurance has negotiated a rate of about $4,500. Why are the uninsured charged so much? While the ZHC was able to negotiate this bill down, there are hundreds of thousands of New Jerseyans without such allies. The staff at the ZHC have watched patients burst into tears when faced with these obligations. If the patients have assets and no negotiating clout, they could wind up paying five to ten times the amount an insurance company would pay. Others declare bankruptcy, throw up their hands and seek charity care status.
People are cowered into paying too much for health insurance because they see the $30,000 bill, and those who cannot afford those premiums have had no where to turn-- until now.
"We are looking for a few good men and women to step up to the plate and help us set up a hospital where the priorities are right--where the goal is to practice excellent, high quality medicine, at reasonable prices, unfettered by the ridiculous regulations and nitpicking oversight of a government bureaucracy that wants to perpetuate itself above all else. We are looking to escape the jackpot legal system that has driven up the cost of all health care, fueled by the greedy trial lawyers who operate without a sense of fairness." says Dr. Alieta Eck.
On a recent 60-minutes broadcast, it was shown that Americans are willing to travel 23 hours to Thailand or India for open-heart surgery-- at a cost of $10,000 instead of $100,000. How much more would they be willing to travel four hours non-stop to Antigua? Especially if there are American doctors rotating through, or recently retired US physicians with skills and expertise.
They say that they need people with all kinds of expertise to help do the right thing on Antigua. Baldwin Spencer will be in NYC for the opening of the UN on September 14th, thus he plans to attend the Benefit Banquet of the Zarephath Health Center on the 16th at 6:30PM. The keynote speaker, Dr. Walt Larimore, vice president of Medical Outreach of Focus on the Family, will be the keynote speaker, discussing the providing of medical care to those in financial need. Seating at this event is still available at $45 and can be obtained through the Zarephath Health Center website.
"We will hope to convey to the people of Antigua and Barbuda our mission--to provide high quality, lower cost health care to "medical refugees" from the United States and Canada, and at the same time, uplift the economy of this little island, ravaged by a 23 year administration that was run by people who exploited their own. The current PM came into office a year and a half ago, and is a man of integrity. " says Dr. John Eck.
The Zarephath Health Center is looking for philanthropists, venture capitalists, recently retired experts with the time and finances to do a great thing without looking for huge monetary gain. They hope to mobilize recently retired physicians, perhaps another type of "medical refugee," who have stopped practice in this country due to the burdensome malpractice climate. They have a four month window to develop the business plan, and Dr. William Sandberg of the Moore School of Business in the University of South Carolina, who accompanied the team on the trip to Antigua, has assembled a group of graduate students to take on that task.
Physicians and other licensed professionals who volunteer at the Zarephath Health Center have been awarded free medical malpractice coverage by the federal government. Volunteers are welcome to come and help there.
John and Alieta Eck, MD
732-537-0737, Zarephath Health Center