“I credit Callen-Lorde with saving my life,” said Leo, who identifies as a Black gay man and a Callen-Lorde patient for over a decade. After routine lab tests showed early signs of anal cancer, Leo underwent treatment to remove the pre-cancerous cells before they developed into something more serious.
“I was at my lowest, and Callen-Lorde accepted me for who I am,” said William a gay man living with HIV who struggled with substance use. William was living in a shelter and felt the future he wanted was impossible. Working with welcoming behavioral and primary health providers, William has found an exciting career path and is now managing his health “like an expert.”provides care to patients regardless of their ability to pay.
However, primary care has been underfunded for decades because insurance companies are stuck in a cycle of paying high prices for acute and emergency care–leaving less for organizations that provide preventive services. Case in point: commercially insured New Yorkers make up 41% of Callen-Lorde’s patient population but only 7% of our patient revenue. As a result, we and other organizations around the U.S. struggle to operate and hire, which can erode care.
We already know that similar legislation works in other states–more than a dozen have adopted such investment measures. Rhode Island mandated commercial insurers to increase investment in primary care by 1% annually over five years in 2009. Between 2008 and 2012, primary care spending grew by 37%–while total medical spending dropped by 14% and more primary care physicians joined the state’s workforce.