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Speaker 1: stories that are underreported but that mattered to you, overlooked
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Speaker 1: Maria Inojosa.
Speaker 2: Nose Bayan.
Speaker 1: Hey, Latino USA, listener, here's a show from our archives.
Speaker 1: For this episode of Latino USA, We're going to do
Speaker 1: something a little bit different. Normally, when we interview people
Speaker 1: who speak Spanish. We translate all of those interviews into English,
Speaker 1: but today we've decided not to translate any of the Spanish.
Speaker 1: We wanted to preserve the voices and the people in
Speaker 1: the way that they are naturally conveyed. We'd like to
Speaker 1: ask you to listen, even if you don't understand every word,
Speaker 1: because we think there's a lot you're going to get
Speaker 1: from this multi lingual story. If you like a transcript
Speaker 1: of this with all of the audio translated, you can
Speaker 1: find it online at latinousa dot org. And we should
Speaker 1: mention that this story could be disturbing for some of
Speaker 1: our listeners. Here's our reporting.
Speaker 2: In a health clinic in Chicago, Marta Flores is receiving.
Speaker 3: Some news chom.
Speaker 2: Her doctor walks into the exam room and she barely
Speaker 2: closes the door before she gets right to it.
Speaker 4: Squila and toss see.
Speaker 2: Martha has clearly taken aback. The doctor tells her her
Speaker 2: high blood sugar means something else.
Speaker 4: And tossnostico de diabetiss see per controla.
Speaker 2: This is a new diagnosis from Martha, but she's been
Speaker 2: coming to this clinic for ten years. She's sixty six
Speaker 2: years old and originally from Al Salvador.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, Martha doesn't say much or ask many questions after
Speaker 2: she hears that she has diabetes, but after the physical exam,
Speaker 2: she seems to get less calm.
Speaker 4: Comp we know, Whensa, it's a c.
Speaker 2: Marta is also worried about what her daughter will say
Speaker 2: when she hears about her diagnosis.
Speaker 6: Okay, I be an rico mia.
Speaker 2: Diabetes can be genetic, but it can also be brought
Speaker 2: on by diet, especially sugary drinks.
Speaker 7: A no.
Speaker 2: Martha says that when she sits down to eat, she
Speaker 2: forgets all about what the doctors tell her she should
Speaker 2: be eating.
Speaker 6: Media, because.
Speaker 2: Then Martha begins to listen to me all of her
Speaker 2: favorite foods.
Speaker 6: La banana jos.
Speaker 5: Include.
Speaker 2: She opens her purse and shows me the banana she
Speaker 2: has stashed there, and I want to hear more about
Speaker 2: her banana fanaticism, but we're interrupted by her cell phone.
Speaker 6: Buzzy Dana Gisa, Hello, ladies.
Speaker 2: It's Martha's daughter calling to see when she can pick
Speaker 2: her up, and Martha gives her.
Speaker 4: The Newsma Notitia, the goat.
Speaker 1: Is from Fudromedia and pr X It's Latino Usa. I'm
Speaker 1: Maria nojosa and today off to the doctor's office. Going
Speaker 1: to see the doctor is almost always a stressful and
Speaker 1: vulnerable experience. It's a place where your anxieties about your
Speaker 1: body and your life are super heightened, and where everything
Speaker 1: can change with just a few words from your doctor.
Speaker 1: Undocumented people generally can't access insurance and so their healthcare
Speaker 1: options are very limited, but one of the places they
Speaker 1: can go are free health clinics. Free clinics have only
Speaker 1: been around in the United States. Starting in the nineteen
Speaker 1: sixties and seventies, there were places that popped up to
Speaker 1: deal with the growing number of young people who were runaways,
Speaker 1: or uninsured or addicted to drugs.
Speaker 2: What's a free clinic.
Speaker 8: It's where our growing up children go for help when
Speaker 8: they can't or won't come home.
Speaker 1: The first one was the hate Ashbury Free Clinic, which
Speaker 1: came to be after a flood of young people ended
Speaker 1: up in San Francisco for the Summer of Love.
Speaker 8: Dentists, doctors, lawyers, and other professionals are here as volunteers.
Speaker 8: They treat all the embarrassing ailments of the youngsterdents to
Speaker 8: nereal disease, drug complaints, hepatitis from shooting drugs with dirty needles,
Speaker 8: pregnancy problems here, for example, was developed that form of
Speaker 8: teenage group therapy where the kids just talk out their emotion.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, thank god that you don't think I felt
Speaker 4: that her so she said she couldn't see me.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah.
Speaker 1: Today there are twenty eight million uninsured people in the
Speaker 1: United States, and free clinics can often be their only
Speaker 1: safety inn We're going to spend time in one of
Speaker 1: those clinics. In fact, it's the largest free health clinic
Speaker 1: in the United States. It's called Community Health in Chicago,
Speaker 1: and it only serves people who don't have health insurance. Now,
Speaker 1: it's almost impossible for journalists to get behind the scenes
Speaker 1: access to medical centers because there are a lot of laws,
Speaker 1: and rightly so, that protect patients privacy. So when Community
Speaker 1: Health in Chicago told us that they would give us
Speaker 1: full access to their facilities, we saw this as a
Speaker 1: rare opportunity to observe the daily dramas that unfold there.
Speaker 1: We spent three days sitting in on doctors exams and
Speaker 1: talking with patients and staff and all of this to
Speaker 1: try to capture or a snapshot of how undocumented life
Speaker 1: manifests itself both physically and mentally. Now, at the beginning
Speaker 1: of this show, you heard producer Sophia Palisa ka this
Speaker 1: past summer, she flew to Chicago along with producer Antonia,
Speaker 1: and Antonia is going to take it from here.
Speaker 9: Thanks Dramos.
Speaker 7: The clinic is located in Chicago's Ukrainian Village, a quiet
Speaker 7: residential neighborhood. It takes Gabriel do Mingez half an hour
Speaker 7: by car to get to the clinic every morning.
Speaker 5: That is logo.
Speaker 7: Gabriel is the custodian at Community Health and he is
Speaker 7: in charge of opening the clinics unassuming glass stores every
Speaker 7: day around eight o'clock.
Speaker 5: Aki in directa meenteno.
Speaker 7: Gabriel has a kind face transition lenses and a lot
Speaker 7: of tools hanging off of his belt loop so.
Speaker 5: The key.
Speaker 7: He leads me inside the building and I thank him
Speaker 7: for letting me in, But as soon as I start
Speaker 7: to leave in search of the front desk, he stops me.
Speaker 3: He lets me know that he's like me. He documents
Speaker 3: the world, Yeah, does your participate?
Speaker 7: He pulls up Facebook to show me videos he took
Speaker 7: of his zoomba classes. He even bought a stabilizer which
Speaker 7: makes the videos look very professional.
Speaker 5: He's implemented.
Speaker 10: See the pro.
Speaker 3: Over the next three days, we meet a lot of characters. Okay,
Speaker 3: to go do that?
Speaker 2: Do you have time?
Speaker 3: Yeah, the patient's not here.
Speaker 11: Yes, so I leave you.
Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, I know, sorry about and you are.
Speaker 7: If you were to take a god's eye view of
Speaker 7: the clinic while my fellow producer, Sophia and I spent
Speaker 7: time there, we would look like pac men gliding around
Speaker 7: a maze of corridors chasing patients, and the patient's path
Speaker 7: through this maze starts at the front desk. According to
Speaker 7: the front desk, Monday and Thursday mornings are their busiest times.
Speaker 12: Amos Borquet.
Speaker 7: This is Altis Mendez and her name could not be
Speaker 7: more perfect for her position.
Speaker 6: We were talking to our patients.
Speaker 4: He asked me what my name was, and he said, well,
Speaker 4: I forgot. Like you know, it's very easy when you
Speaker 4: have pain, just think of me.
Speaker 13: That's my name, Dolores.
Speaker 7: Overall, the clinic sees eighty five hundred patients a year.
Speaker 7: To be able to get care here, an individual patient
Speaker 7: must have no insurance and have an annual salary of
Speaker 7: under thirty thousand dollars. The clinic doesn't treat kids, because
Speaker 7: Illinois provides healthcare to minors regardless of status. Once a
Speaker 7: patient checks in, they sit in the skylit waiting room.
Speaker 7: Their names are called out one by one, they take
Speaker 7: their vitals, and then the patients are led to their appointment.
Speaker 7: There are neurologists, ophthalmologists, even a dentist who will extract
Speaker 7: your teeth while you listen to calming retro jams. The
Speaker 7: exam rooms in the clinic are laid out in a
Speaker 7: U shape. The nucleus of the clinic is in the
Speaker 7: center of the U, and it's an open space with
Speaker 7: computers and chairs where doctors and staff hang out. Every
Speaker 7: morning and afternoon, the staff gathers here for briefing called
Speaker 7: the huddle, which Sophia caught on the first day on
Speaker 7: the board.
Speaker 2: And I think that's all, thanks guys very quick. Today
Speaker 2: the morning huddle is led by Amelia Pilch. She's from Poland,
Speaker 2: moved here thirteen years ago.
Speaker 14: Uh, you know, economy in Poland wasn't that great? Isn't
Speaker 14: that great? I guess, so we just came here with
Speaker 14: my parents.
Speaker 2: And the Chicago metropolitan area has the largest Polish community
Speaker 2: in the United States. And the clinic reflects that about
Speaker 2: a third of patients are Polish speakers, and that's part
Speaker 2: of why we wanted to visit Community Health. Almost all
Speaker 2: of the patients we spoke to there were immigrants, and
Speaker 2: sometimes Amelia briefs the doctors, but she also maintains this
Speaker 2: leaderboard at the center of the clinic.
Speaker 14: A provider is like, really really good at it, we
Speaker 14: give them a shout out during the hudel.
Speaker 2: It's a whiteboard with names like the high score ranking
Speaker 2: screen in an arcade game, but all the names on
Speaker 2: it are residents, and instead of a point total, the
Speaker 2: categories are things.
Speaker 14: Like diabetics for they want to see less than nine.
Speaker 2: Percent things us non doctors wouldn't understand.
Speaker 14: That means that their diabetes is well ish controlled, so
Speaker 14: anything over nine percent.
Speaker 2: And the residents are pretty into these rankings.
Speaker 14: It's pretty competitive, to be honest, Like it's so tiny.
Speaker 14: They're like they always look for their names, and some
Speaker 14: of them have been on there for like, you know,
Speaker 14: eight ten times the same name, so they're very like,
Speaker 14: you know, so we kind of here's you're awesome.
Speaker 2: Doctor Mattilios interrupts Amelia as she scours the board for
Speaker 2: her own name.
Speaker 14: Yes, you were there some Well, it's for the residents only, so.
Speaker 11: You know.
Speaker 2: She's the doctor who diagnosed Martha at the beginning of
Speaker 2: the story.
Speaker 11: Oh, she's told me. I've heard about the.
Speaker 2: Cats, and she's often the center of attention. I'm told
Speaker 2: I must hear the story behind the name of her cat. Natcho.
Speaker 4: Okay, my gran sound gave me a joke. What do
Speaker 4: you think cheese that is not yours? Not your cheese,
Speaker 4: Not your cheese.
Speaker 2: Doctor Rios has been a volunteer doctor at the clinic
Speaker 2: for eight years, and so she has a special connection
Speaker 2: with many of her patients. Both Antonia and I spent
Speaker 2: a lot of time with her and in her exam
Speaker 2: room between appointments. Doctor Rios told Antonia a little bit
Speaker 2: more about herself.
Speaker 7: Doctor Rios, like many of her patients, is an immigrant.
Speaker 7: She came to the US from Urdu Way in the
Speaker 7: late seventies. At the time, there was a military dictatorship
Speaker 7: and power and the administration was targeting civilians. They believed
Speaker 7: to be part of a guerrilla terrorist group.
Speaker 4: But they were also taken to jail because you have
Speaker 4: a family who was involved. They would take Koto and
Speaker 4: you were afraid. Yes, yes we were.
Speaker 5: We were.
Speaker 4: That's what we emigrated.
Speaker 7: Her family moved to Chicago in nineteen eighty three, and
Speaker 7: doctor Rio started her career in private practice. She worked
Speaker 7: for three decades and then decided to retire. But if
Speaker 7: you can't tell, doctor Rios has a lot of energy,
Speaker 7: and so she started to get restless. And one night,
Speaker 7: while she was googling at two am, something she told
Speaker 7: me she actually does very frequently. She learned about this
Speaker 7: clinic Community Health and thought it was exactly the kind
Speaker 7: of place that she would like to volunteer at. But
Speaker 7: when she first started coming, she didn't exactly feel welcome.
Speaker 4: I didn't know anybody. And I saw these professors from
Speaker 4: Northwestern rush walking talking given classes, and I said, what
Speaker 4: I'm doing here? Because I didn't know anybody, I was
Speaker 4: going to quit. I felt bitter, uncomfortably.
Speaker 3: But then she got a little encouragement.
Speaker 4: Somebody from the front this game and say, oh my god,
Speaker 4: doctor Rio. Sold the patient like you so much. They
Speaker 4: all want to come back to you. So I said, okay,
Speaker 4: so maybe I can do something good here.
Speaker 7: Mattilee is retired. She doesn't get paid to see patients.
Speaker 7: None of the doctors do. It takes over one thousand
Speaker 7: volunteers to keep Community Health running.
Speaker 2: The way Community Health runs is that all of the
Speaker 2: doctors are volunteers. Some are retired, but many are full
Speaker 2: time doctors who spend a few hours a month at
Speaker 2: the clinic. And all of the prescriptions provided that Community
Speaker 2: Health are free for patients, even really expensive things like insulin.
Speaker 2: They even have their own pharmacy. Community Health was founded
Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety three by an Italian immigrant, a kidney doctor.
Speaker 2: He was concerned with the number of uninsured people in Chicago,
Speaker 2: so he opened a storefront clinic that took patients twice
Speaker 2: a week. The demand grew so much that in twenty
Speaker 2: ten they even opened a second clinic to serve more people.
Speaker 2: But then in twenty fourteen, the Affordable Care Act went.
Speaker 15: Into effect, and millions of Americans finally had same chance
Speaker 15: to buy quality, affordable healthcare and the peace of mind
Speaker 15: that comes with it as everybody else.
Speaker 2: And many of the clinic's patients were able to get
Speaker 2: coverage for the first time. In fact, so many that
Speaker 2: Community Health decided to close their second clinic because of
Speaker 2: a drop in demand.
Speaker 3: One knowsias, but at least.
Speaker 2: One patient Antonia spoke to who felt that getting insurance
Speaker 2: actually put him in a worse position.
Speaker 7: Vis a Linocent Coseinyez stopped going to Community Health when
Speaker 7: he began getting insurance through his work, but now he
Speaker 7: wants to return to the clinic. The front desk tries
Speaker 7: to explain to him that now that he's insured, he can't.
Speaker 7: Jose hands the front desk person a letter, in it
Speaker 7: he formally declines his new health insurance. He tells her
Speaker 7: he's decided to stay uninsured in order to be able
Speaker 7: to keep going to Community Health. The letter is taken
Speaker 7: behind the desk to Vicky Chester, the patient services manager.
Speaker 7: Vicky tells me that this circumstance is not that rare.
Speaker 14: Oftentimes people will elect to cantle their insurance for the
Speaker 14: sake of returning here, which is not something that we
Speaker 14: encourage them to do.
Speaker 7: What this means is that Jose would lose coverage in
Speaker 7: case of an emergency, since Community Health only offers preventive care.
Speaker 7: But Kse tells me that it's worth the risk for
Speaker 7: him because he feels financially that he isn't getting by
Speaker 7: month to month again, He's willing to risk a surprise
Speaker 7: visit to the emergency room because his insurance is costing
Speaker 7: him so much.
Speaker 5: Las Cano's camp.
Speaker 7: Under his works insurance, he says, he is now being
Speaker 7: charged five thousand dollars to cover the cost of his
Speaker 7: lotions to take care of his exzema. When he was
Speaker 7: a community health patient, they were free. I want to
Speaker 7: go check out where all these free meds are and
Speaker 7: so I find myself in the clinics pharmacy. Doctor Rios
Speaker 7: is there and she lets me know the lowdown on
Speaker 7: one of her patients.
Speaker 4: So we are here because we have a patient with
Speaker 4: very high cholesterol called familiar hyper cooleisterolemia, and she's in
Speaker 4: in medication. She's taking a medication who lowered the colesterole
Speaker 4: What I think now she may not be taking the medication.
Speaker 4: That's something many times we find that they prescribe a medication,
Speaker 4: they get the medication from Fienn, but they don't take.
Speaker 4: So she's coming today. I have to really ask if
Speaker 4: she's taking and she always say yes, and after I
Speaker 4: have to go around with other questions and sometimes they
Speaker 4: say no, really doesn't I didn't take her.
Speaker 7: Patient Irma arrives and it has led to the exam room.
Speaker 7: I followed closely behind.
Speaker 4: Is that medicina.
Speaker 3: Doctor Rios cuts.
Speaker 7: Her gaze away from Irma and towards me with a
Speaker 7: sly expression that says, see told yourself, mad. It seems
Speaker 7: like Irma is starting to give in to doctor Rios.
Speaker 7: She's saying that there are nights that she skipped the
Speaker 7: medicine because she feared that it was keeping her.
Speaker 4: Up well, not is.
Speaker 5: Mando?
Speaker 6: Okay?
Speaker 3: So when doctor.
Speaker 7: Rios seems genuinely shocked that she was able to get
Speaker 7: to admit she wasn't taking her medicine so quickly, and
Speaker 7: she tells she's worried about her needing to get up
Speaker 7: in the middle of the night to use the bathroom,
Speaker 7: that it might be a sign of another problem, and
Speaker 7: so she's going to order some.
Speaker 3: Tests, per okay. When I sit in an empty exam room.
Speaker 13: Your croquet when.
Speaker 7: Medico perolas, when I the door so we can talk privately, mises.
Speaker 14: Bin.
Speaker 7: I learned that there are things in IMA's life that
Speaker 7: are not so easily fixed just by taking the pills
Speaker 7: for cholesterol that doctor Rios so desperately.
Speaker 3: Wants her to take.
Speaker 7: Ima opens up about very personal things, and even though
Speaker 7: I have her sign a consent form with her full name.
Speaker 7: All of the patients we spoke to did. Because of
Speaker 7: the nature of her story, we have decided not to
Speaker 7: include her last name. When she arrived in the US,
Speaker 7: she started to work in housekeeping at a hotel in Evanston, Illinois,
Speaker 7: a wealthy suburb north of Chicago, but she stopped after
Speaker 7: something happened at her work.
Speaker 13: Physic any persona and mana years.
Speaker 5: Maybe.
Speaker 3: And Ima says that she was frequently raped by her.
Speaker 13: Managercopava Centia, Centia forte centia.
Speaker 7: Can Ima says that people at her job didn't support her,
Speaker 7: and that many of her colleagues were facing similar treatment
Speaker 7: but couldn't speak up because they did not want to
Speaker 7: lose their jobs.
Speaker 14: Yep.
Speaker 7: Finally, one day she gathered courage to leave her job
Speaker 7: and filed a complaint with the local police.
Speaker 13: And I'm with forion.
Speaker 4: A persona.
Speaker 6: No no, nothing machines.
Speaker 7: She struggled to find help until learning about this place
Speaker 7: Community Health.
Speaker 5: Neste okay no I spress.
Speaker 7: In addition to the doctor, she sees a therapist here
Speaker 7: and with her help, she's been able to reframe what
Speaker 7: happened to her.
Speaker 2: Garnet gnio.
Speaker 13: Espress her calu cha.
Speaker 7: She's been here for only a year. She admits there's
Speaker 7: still a lot of work to be done.
Speaker 13: Okay, so yes, a moment to schedules Canada, the po
Speaker 13: be there, and the Moon says as if his sister.
Speaker 10: To super.
Speaker 7: People who argue undocumented immigrants shouldn't have access to healthcare
Speaker 7: pose their position as one about lack of resources. Undocumented
Speaker 7: migrants are invaders coming to take advantage of our system,
Speaker 7: to use our benefits and take our jobs. But what
Speaker 7: this argument leaves out is the altogether common situation in
Speaker 7: which our system takes advantage of them. During our days
Speaker 7: at Community Health, we started to see how this one
Speaker 7: clinic is trying to treat patients by not just addressing
Speaker 7: their physical health, but also taking into consideration the system
Speaker 7: in which they live.
Speaker 1: Coming up on Latino USA, we unpack the unique challenges
Speaker 1: of caring for the undocumented. Stay with us, not stay by,
Speaker 1: Yes Hey We're back, and producers Sophia Palissa car and
Speaker 1: Antonia Serejido have been observing the inner workings of the
Speaker 1: largest free health clinic in the nation. Community Health is
Speaker 1: located in Chicago, and it only serves people without health
Speaker 1: insurance Their most common diagnoses are high cholesterol, high blood pressure,
Speaker 1: and diabetes, three of the most common health problems in
Speaker 1: the US, and like doctor's offices across the country, this
Speaker 1: clinic treats the physical symptoms of these issues, but it
Speaker 1: also takes into account the very specific needs of their
Speaker 1: immigrant and often undocumented patients. Now it's evening time at
Speaker 1: the Community Health Clinic in Chicago, and our producer Sophia
Speaker 1: is going to pick up this story from here.
Speaker 2: The clinic normally has the quiet feeling of a doctor's office,
Speaker 2: in which sound is trapped in the carpet of the
Speaker 2: waiting room and doctors speak in soothing toes. But there
Speaker 2: are certain periods of time when the quiet clinic becomes
Speaker 2: a classrooms. Okay, good. In the evening, dozens of medical
Speaker 2: students come from nearby universities. They see patients and write
Speaker 2: up their charts. And she started out and a few
Speaker 2: of them hang out in the blood lab.
Speaker 16: Some centrafugures are running. We're running a couple of miles
Speaker 16: that patients have given us to test their blood.
Speaker 2: You say that likes you're like blood like in a
Speaker 2: horror movie.
Speaker 16: I know, right, I'm count Dracula basically no, yeah.
Speaker 2: In the back room is Itze Lopez Tyler mcxanik and
Speaker 2: Craig Johnson or us Tyler puts it.
Speaker 5: This is the original squad.
Speaker 2: On their first rotation at the clinic, they were all
Speaker 2: assigned together each other. They primarily are responsible for drawing
Speaker 2: patient's blood in order to test for sdis and blood sugar.
Speaker 2: So what year are you in med school?
Speaker 3: First year?
Speaker 2: Well, we're rising in second years.
Speaker 16: We're in our summer before the rest of our lives.
Speaker 2: All three of them are in the process of considering
Speaker 2: their next steps after medical school. And it turns out
Speaker 2: Itzel isn't new to community health.
Speaker 16: So I took a gap year in between graduating undergrad
Speaker 16: and then coming to medical school, and I interpreted here.
Speaker 2: It says parents are immigrants.
Speaker 16: So as like the cultural and linguistic broker, I was
Speaker 16: often in those clinical spaces with them and just realizing
Speaker 16: how special and vulnerable those conversations can be, and how
Speaker 16: difficult sometimes and how things get missed.
Speaker 2: What she saw made her want to be a doctor,
Speaker 2: especially a bilingual doctor.
Speaker 16: As soon as you speak their language, even if you
Speaker 16: don't look like them, they're like, oh my gosh, like
Speaker 16: they bring in their kids, and their kids don't have
Speaker 16: to interpret anymore, and they don't have to go through
Speaker 16: this weird, awkward exchange. So it's important to me, and
Speaker 16: I really hope, whether it's here in Chicago or anywhere else,
Speaker 16: that I do serve largely Latino preprilation.
Speaker 2: Language is a major issue at the clinic. Their patients
Speaker 2: speak thirty four different languages, though more than half of
Speaker 2: them prefer to have their exams in Spanish, and while
Speaker 2: several doctors speak more than one language, like doctor Rios,
Speaker 2: the clinic does have volunteer interpreters. The interpreters can be
Speaker 2: found sitting in a row of bright orange chairs at
Speaker 2: the center of the clinic, like soccer players on a bench.
Speaker 2: They wait to be called into the fray.
Speaker 17: Yes, I am grading papers. I'm teaching summer school, and
Speaker 17: I grade papers while I wait.
Speaker 2: This is Will Hester. He's a Spanish teacher and a
Speaker 2: certified medical interpreter.
Speaker 17: It's a Spanish one oh one class, so they had
Speaker 17: to write letters to an imaginary pen pal.
Speaker 2: I asked him how he got into interpreting.
Speaker 17: I was looking for someplace to volunteer, and my husband said,
Speaker 17: you need to go to this clinic and you need
Speaker 17: to serve And I said, oh, I can't do it.
Speaker 17: I don't know the word for elbow, you know. And
Speaker 17: my husband said, go get a book, learn the word.
Speaker 17: That's what I did.
Speaker 2: Will approaches interpreting a specific way, like he's not just
Speaker 2: trying to convey the meaning of words. He's trying to
Speaker 2: create a more equitable world.
Speaker 17: My job is to allow our Spanish speaking patients to
Speaker 17: have the same access to the US healthcare system as
Speaker 17: do patients who speak English, and to put them on
Speaker 17: an equal footing, because what's important in that moment is
Speaker 17: the connection between the physician and the patient. The interpreter
Speaker 17: is an important part, but we should be an important
Speaker 17: part in the background.
Speaker 2: In other words, his mission is to convey a patient's
Speaker 2: words and emotions as accurately as possible, and Antonio got
Speaker 2: to see him put these very principles in action.
Speaker 7: I'm sitting in on an exam with a patient named
Speaker 7: He's trying to explain to his doctor, Nausea Babel, that
Speaker 7: he's getting blisters under his teeth. He opens his mouth wide.
Speaker 7: Doctor Babel is proficient in Spanish and can understand that
Speaker 7: there's something wrong with teeth. But you can't figure out
Speaker 7: exactly what he's trying to say. So she steps outside
Speaker 7: momentarily to bring Will in.
Speaker 11: So put this explica, Can I can I precession memo?
Speaker 11: Will so interpretectunic director.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 7: Will begins translating for and he does it like he's
Speaker 7: an actor embodying a new role. He talks in the
Speaker 7: first person.
Speaker 17: So I was going to ask if I could get
Speaker 17: some better because they're having some blisters to come up
Speaker 17: under the teeth.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, with this information, I'm going to take it
Speaker 2: back to the clinic coordinator.
Speaker 5: Determinar ne.
Speaker 11: Or I can't wait a few days. I feel fine.
Speaker 11: It's that I couldn't eat.
Speaker 7: It feels like Will is the human version of clipping
Speaker 7: that digital paper clip that used to show up on
Speaker 7: word documents. Will is very helpful, okay, seems very at
Speaker 7: home at the doctors.
Speaker 5: No mean Cristian Okay, nada, No reporter.
Speaker 7: We're not using's last name because of his status. As
Speaker 7: you can tell, he's a pretty easy going guy, but
Speaker 7: he's had to face a lot of challenges For as
Speaker 7: long as he's been in the US. He's had diabetes
Speaker 7: and he's had to manage it. Along with other health problems,
Speaker 7: mostly due to his work. Ya so is this Russiao
Speaker 7: Pintihannas were special compression socks that go up to his
Speaker 7: knees to help the circulation because he stands for so
Speaker 7: long during his job. He also puts on creams and
Speaker 7: lotions at night to help deal with the pain, but
Speaker 7: he says his circumstance doesn't compare to what his family
Speaker 7: in Mexico has dealt with recently.
Speaker 9: Young Gradius, he says this is why he brought.
Speaker 7: His family to the US. His nephews were only nineteen
Speaker 7: and twenty when they got involved with cigadios or hitman,
Speaker 7: and he feared his children would find a similar.
Speaker 5: End your fails, Ya Cal s.
Speaker 7: His fear was heightened because he already lost his son
Speaker 7: in Mexico, not to the drug war, but because of
Speaker 7: a freak accident.
Speaker 5: There's a science, tell you, Natina the away no One.
Speaker 7: During exam, doctor Babel asked if he'd be interested in
Speaker 7: seeing other specialists, including a mental health counselor.
Speaker 9: K is a black cone persona.
Speaker 5: The problem is similar and prefacing see okay okay.
Speaker 7: The counselor's room is three doors down from where Elutio
Speaker 7: and I are sitting. The room has a surreal quality.
Speaker 7: When a patient is inside the councilor's room, no one
Speaker 7: can hear what they're saying because for privacy. There's a
Speaker 7: white noise machine sitting just outside. But if you were
Speaker 7: able to see inside, you would see something very unusual.
Speaker 7: Even though there are no windows, there are dozens of
Speaker 7: living plants, mostly bamboo. The counselor whose office it is
Speaker 7: jokes that the plants live off of love. It is
Speaker 7: in this room that Edim of the housekeeper we heard
Speaker 7: from earlier, once shared her story and started to find
Speaker 7: a personal sense of justice. It's where might tell his
Speaker 7: story one day. It's a room where living beings, plants
Speaker 7: without sunlight, people without status can grow.
Speaker 1: Coming up the last patient we hear from that community Health.
Speaker 4: Stay with us.
Speaker 3: Yes we're back.
Speaker 1: And for the last few days, producers Sophia Prisa car
Speaker 1: and Antonia Serejido have gotten to watch how community health works,
Speaker 1: from how they deal with patients who are more comfortable
Speaker 1: in a different language to patients with mental health issues.
Speaker 1: But despite the clinic's breadth of services, they've learned that
Speaker 1: many of the providers actually wish that clinic didn't exist
Speaker 1: at all, Sofia Palisaka takes it from here.
Speaker 2: In total, we spent three days at Community Health, and
Speaker 2: over the course of that time, we talked to a
Speaker 2: lot of patients who are happy with their care, and
Speaker 2: many of them have been coming to this same clinic
Speaker 2: for years, decades. Even Community Health treats over eight thousand
Speaker 2: people a year, and the reason why they can do
Speaker 2: that is because they're privately funded. That means they're supported
Speaker 2: by individuals, but also by huge networks like the University
Speaker 2: of Chicago Medical School and giin pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer.
Speaker 2: It takes an army to make it run. They have
Speaker 2: over one thousand volunteers.
Speaker 10: I think Community Health does a very nice job of
Speaker 10: using all the different types of providers in a really
Speaker 10: innovative way, and I think that that type of innovation
Speaker 10: needs to be part of our national conversation about health policy.
Speaker 2: This is Margaret Bavis, a nurse practitioner at Community Health
Speaker 2: and an assistant professor at Rush University, and while she's
Speaker 2: very proud of the work the clinic does, she tells
Speaker 2: me that she and other providers sometimes feel conflicted about
Speaker 2: their work.
Speaker 10: The founder of Community Health, doctor Gerrillo, when he was
Speaker 10: here last year for the twenty fifth anniversary, and he
Speaker 10: has since passed away, but he in his speech at
Speaker 10: our celebration, made a statement about how he wished we
Speaker 10: didn't need to exist. And I always think about that
Speaker 10: and kind of take that to heart.
Speaker 2: And she echoed a thought we had heard from several
Speaker 2: of the doctors here that community health is just a
Speaker 2: stop gap.
Speaker 11: To that end.
Speaker 10: Can we replicate this everywhere and should we have to?
Speaker 10: I mean, can we get the discussion to include everybody,
Speaker 10: regardless of status.
Speaker 2: Doctor Bavis believes health care should be a human right,
Speaker 2: but she points out to me that even if you
Speaker 2: don't believe that, there's a public health argument to be made,
Speaker 2: when diseases spread, they don't discriminate.
Speaker 10: If we don't give everybody the opportunity for measles vaccination,
Speaker 10: then we're putting ourselves at risk. If we don't give
Speaker 10: everybody an opportunity to have access to health care, we're
Speaker 10: putting everybody at risk around us.
Speaker 2: But undocumented communities aren't just dealing with infectious diseases. There's
Speaker 2: an inherent stress in trying to navigate our country's immigration system.
Speaker 2: The final patient we're going to meet is Maria. My godness,
Speaker 2: Doctor Emily Handel swivels around her computer screen to show
Speaker 2: Maria her blood tests.
Speaker 12: Dierecis for Movianna.
Speaker 2: Maria has a vibe of someone who grew up getting
Speaker 2: gold stars for perfect attendance polester.
Speaker 12: And total for ciento viniquatro normal est menosquelo cientos perfecto.
Speaker 2: And she takes that optimistic energy into an interview with me.
Speaker 2: How long have you been coming here?
Speaker 6: Wow? I'm be here since nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 2: Maria has been living in Chicago for twenty eight years,
Speaker 2: though she's originally from Mexico City, but she didn't get
Speaker 2: her legal residency until a few years ago. Having her
Speaker 2: papers now should mean that she can sign up for
Speaker 2: health care.
Speaker 12: I could apply for that, but for a while, I can.
Speaker 5: I can.
Speaker 12: I have to weigh five years and I only have
Speaker 12: a three years.
Speaker 2: Maria wants to apply for Medicaid, and as a permanent resident,
Speaker 2: she can do that, but instead of doing that, she
Speaker 2: wants to wait five years until she can become a
Speaker 2: naturalized citizen first, before she tries to get health care.
Speaker 2: She switches to Spanish to better explain her concern.
Speaker 11: Podria is.
Speaker 12: No aorda this scene the kuala kuipida, Are you da
Speaker 12: public tanto medici for the stamps? Eotro keadimento the medicina.
Speaker 12: It is tarta publica in no Podria's kalivikar para las
Speaker 12: yoda dani.
Speaker 2: What she's talking about here are changes that the Trump
Speaker 2: administration has proposed to make it more difficult for migrants
Speaker 2: to seek green cards. The idea was that if migrants
Speaker 2: applied for benefits like medicaid or food stamps, they could
Speaker 2: be seen as a public charge, meaning dependent on the government,
Speaker 2: and therefore ineligible for residency. The rule was supposed to
Speaker 2: go into effect in October of this year, but it
Speaker 2: struck down by several federal judges. And actually the rule
Speaker 2: wouldn't apply to people like Maria because she's already a
Speaker 2: permanent resident. But there has been so much confusion around
Speaker 2: this new rule that many immigrants have dropped their housing, food,
Speaker 2: or medical benefits out of fear with.
Speaker 12: The Obama gonna be an imer for us.
Speaker 2: Maria has considered getting covered through the Affordable Care Act
Speaker 2: instead of Medicaid, but she tells me she can't afford it.
Speaker 12: It was so expensive and say, okay, I paid the
Speaker 12: insurance or I pay my rent. The migration situation for
Speaker 12: our communities gray completely.
Speaker 5: Grace you, Mual.
Speaker 2: And Samchanci there, and that anxiety is what many of
Speaker 2: the patients we talk to face in their everyday lives.
Speaker 2: From the beginning of our time here, we wanted to
Speaker 2: know what it would look like if undocumented people weren't
Speaker 2: excluded from our healthcare system, and we observed what a
Speaker 2: difference it makes to have interpreters who care, free medicine
Speaker 2: and access to mental health treatment. But this is just
Speaker 2: one clinic, and even though it's the biggest free clinic,
Speaker 2: it serves less than one hundred people a day. There
Speaker 2: are eleven million undocumented immigrants across the United States. Maria says,
Speaker 2: the way people think about immigrants in this country is
Speaker 2: all wrong.
Speaker 4: Solo qui.
Speaker 12: Lojemos la semos pert in America too. It is zino
Speaker 12: so Manila. Yes, Loki Mattafurustrella's personas.
Speaker 2: He says, in America were worth nothing and that's what
Speaker 2: kills and frustrates people.
Speaker 5: He is almost inferos.
Speaker 7: At six pm, the clinic closes down for the day,
Speaker 7: even though we won't be around to chase patients down
Speaker 7: the corridors with our microphones. Tomorrow, Community Health will reopen
Speaker 7: the doors and start the cycle again.
Speaker 1: Looks legit all right, our thanks to the many patients,
Speaker 1: staff and volunteers at Community Health who spoke with us,
Speaker 1: especially those who allowed us into very intimate moments in
Speaker 1: their lives. This story was produced by Antonio Serejido and
Speaker 1: Sophia Palissa car and edited by Fernando Camarina. Additional reporting
Speaker 1: contributed by Maggie Freeley. The Latino USA team includes Andrea
Speaker 1: Lopez Crusado, Marta Martinez, Mike Sargent, Daisy Contredras, Victoria Estrada,
Speaker 1: Renaldo Leanos Junior, Patricia Sulvaran, and Elizabeth Lenthal Torres. Our
Speaker 1: editorial director is Fernando Santos. Our director of Engineering is
Speaker 1: Stephanie Lebau. Our senior engineer is Julia Caruso. Our associate
Speaker 1: engineers are Gabriel Lebez and j J. Carubin. Our marketing
Speaker 1: manager is Luis Luna. Our theme music was composed by
Speaker 1: Zanga Rubinos. I'm your host and executive producer Maria Jojosa.
Speaker 1: Join us at our next episode. You can also find
Speaker 1: us on your social media, and I say not.
Speaker 5: The rush.
Speaker 18: Funding for Latino USA is coverage of a culture of
Speaker 18: Health is made possible in part by a grant from
Speaker 18: the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the John D. And Catherine T.
Speaker 18: MacArthur Foundation, and the Ford Foundation, working with visionaries on
Speaker 18: the front lines of social change worldwide.
Speaker 3: You're also a member of a book club.
Speaker 4: It's no book club. We call it anti book club.
Speaker 4: I was in a book club and this a group
Speaker 4: of old ladies. What a little, a little grampy old ladies,
Speaker 4: I say, And the books were more like weapons. So
Speaker 4: I say that's enough. I left the group and the well,
Speaker 4: this will be the anti book club. And we get
Speaker 4: together once a month. We make dinner, and we watch
Speaker 4: a movie. And the most important is to treat each
Speaker 4: other really nice.