Health Care

HOSPITALIZATION:

If you need hospitalization or services only a hospital can provide, fear for your ability to pay or have been denied access to hospital services, please call PUP immediately at 215.557.0822.

Highlights

STATE PROVIDED HEALTH INSURANCE

PUP members helped launch AdultBasic. A state-funded insurance plan. For those admitted to the program, insurance coverage becomes very affordable. Anyone financially eligible for AdultBasic can enroll immediately at the "full" price of the program. At $300 a month, this is very expensive for low-income Pennsylvanians, but much less expensive than it would be to enroll in health insurance as an individual. If you're worried you might have a costly health event soon, it might make sense to enroll in the full cost program until space opens up in the subsidized program.

Find out who is eligible for AdultBasic.

PUP'S LONG HISTORY OF SUPPORT TO THE CITY HEALTH CENTERS

PUP has stood behind the Health Centers to push for expanded access, shorter lines and guidelines for care.

The City Health Centers provide access to a full range of preventive, chronic and acute care services. Uninsured people are more likely to receive too little medical care and to receive it too late, to be sicker and to die sooner. They delay getting health services until there is a crisis. They receive fewer preventive services and less regular care for chronic disease.

For example:

Uninsured adults more often go without recommended cancer screening tests, delaying diagnosis until the cancer is advanced and more likely to be fatal;
Uninsured adults with serious chronic problems, such as hypertension, lack regular access to medications to help control these conditions;
One quarter of adults with diabetes who are uninsured for a year or more miss timely eye, foot and blood pressure exams that help prevent blindness, amputation and cardiovascular disease.

	Name	Phone	Address
Philadelphia District Health Centers: Residents of Philadelphia are entitled to FREE or LOW-COST Medical Care and FREE Prescription Drugs, through any one of the City's nine District Health Centers. The Health Centers are located in neighborhoods throughout the city.
The Locations of the District Health Centers are:
	Health Center #1	(215) 685-6570	500 S. Broad (STD Clinic Only)
	Health Center #2	(215) 685-1803	1720 S. Broad Street
	Health Center #3	(215) 685-7504	555 South 43rd Street
	Health Center #4	(215) 685-7601	4400 Haverford Ave
	Health Center #5	(215) 685-2933	1900 North 20th Street
	Health Center #6	(215) 685-3803	301 West Girard Street
	Health Center #9	(215) 685-5701	131 E. Chelten Ave
	Health Center #10	(215) 685-0639	2230 Cottman Ave
	Strawberry Mansion	(215) 685-2401	2840 W. Dauphin St
Call the Health Center near you if you need an appointment You may have to wait up to 3 months for a first appointment. Join PUP and help us get more staff and more hours at health centers. back to top

Federally Funded Health Centers in Philadelphia

Free and low-cost care is also available at other health centers in the city funded primarily by the Federal government.

Greater Philadelphia Health Action, Inc. - ten sites around the city with free and low-cost services. Two of their sites provide behavioral and psychological services.

The Department of Health and Human Services has a Bureau of Primary Health Care which keeps a complete list of free or low-cost health care providers on their web site. These providers cover a broad range of services, detailed on the linked page You will be asked to indicate a state and then the county of Philadelphia to see a list of health centers.

Health Care Hotline

PUP staff can help you figure out how to get the care you need. We have updated information on the availability criteria for full Medical Assistance benefits, the Medically Needy Only (MNO) program, Healthy Beginnings, Healthy Horizons, Hill-Burton Free Services, and City and Community Health Care Centers.
Call the Health Care Hotline: 215-557-0822

What's wrong with the system we're stuck with?

Over 131,000 Philadelphians are without health insurance (according to the Community Health Data Base) They have no protection against a major medical event, either an accident, disease or other disruption. They also lack preventive care that can minimize or prevent health problems from arising or getting worse. It’s not right, and PUP is doing its best to turn the trend around. PUP has increased access for Philadelphians, either through creating programs like adultBasic or protecting Philadelphia's Neighborhood Health Centers. At the same time, fewer and fewer employers are providing health insurance or they are cutting back on benefits or making it too costly for employees to afford.

Contrary to perception, 57% of Philadelphia's uninsured are employed either full or part-time. Once upon a time, you could count on employers to provide workers with health insurance, but today workers have to fight to get it and fight to keep it, harder than ever. Most visibly, the recent strikes by transit workers in Philadelphia and New York City were not about wages. They were about health benefits. So when PUP wins programs that expand access to health insurance coverage, such as adultBasic it doesn't actually increase the number of insured Philadelphians. It just keeps the level of uninsured steady, as employers provide less insurance and the state offers more. In other words, we need a strong campaign to bring more health coverage to more people.

The PUP Health Care Committee has fought to make sure that -

The City of Philadelphia maintains free Public Health Centers
Hospitals abide by Hill-Burton Act requirements to provide Free Services
There is State funding of adultBasic, a low-cost health insurance for low-income Pennsylvanians