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The Urban League of Greater Philadelphia is opening a free clinic in West Philadelphia<\/a> for people without health insurance. The $8 million Center for Well-Being will also offer workforce development, housing, and other services, Urban League officials announced Friday.<\/p>\n The project at 5616 Chestnut St. sits in a neighborhood where three-quarters of the residents have low- or moderate-incomes and chronic conditions like diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure<\/a> are widespread.<\/p>\n The clinic will be open to all Philadelphia residents and expects to serve residents of eastern Delaware County<\/a> as well, Urban League president Darrin W. Anderson Sr. said at Friday\u2019s kickoff event.<\/p>\n \u201cAcross Philadelphia, too many residents continue to face barriers to good health, economic mobility, stable housing, quality jobs, and the resources needed to thrive. These challenges are deeply interconnected and require more than isolated solutions. They require a comprehensive community center approach,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n The Urban League acquired the building in March for $1.6 million \u2014 attracted by the proximity to the Market-Frankford El and its parking lot, both of which make the building accessible to people outside the immediate neighborhood. With internal demolition about half finished, the center is expected to open in the first quarter of next year. <\/p>\n The center \u2014 in a former Mercy Hospital of Philadelphia building \u2014 will employ around 30 people when it is fully operational, said Chetan Panda, executive director of community and economic impact for the Urban League. <\/p>\n The hires for the 4,500-square-foot clinic with eight exam rooms will include a medical director this fall, he said.<\/p>\n The project\u2019s funding comes from a federal tax credit program designed to encourage private investment in economically distressed neighborhoods. <\/p>\n Finanta, a nonprofit Community Development Financial Institution and credit union in Philadelphia, arranged the financing.<\/p>\n Three years ago, U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans, a Philadelphia Democrat retiring at the end of his current term, secured $1.2 million in seed money for the project.<\/p>\n The role of free clinics<\/p>\n The Urban League modeled its free clinic on those in Cherry Hill<\/a>, Phoenixville<\/a>, and West Chester<\/a>. The city\u2019s numerous free primary care clinics are only open periodically, as opposed to being open daily.<\/p>\n Philadelphia has 110,000 people without insurance, according to Panda. Many of them earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, yet don\u2019t have access to insurance through their jobs. Their jobs pay too poorly for them to afford insurance on the state\u2019s Affordable Care Act exchange, Panda said in an interview Thursday.<\/p>\n The number of uninsured people is expected to grow next year when new requirements for federal insurance program take effect<\/a>.<\/p>\n The clinic will refer people who have Medicaid, Medicare, or private insurance to the federal health clinic closest to them. In West Philadelphia, that could be Spectrum or PHMC at the former Mercy Hospital of Philadelphia.<\/p>\n Federal clinics, known as federally qualified heath centers, have a sliding payment scale for people who don\u2019t have insurance. \u201cWe see that a lot of uninsured people forgo care at the FQHCs because they don\u2019t want to pay the sliding scale. That\u2019s a cost burden,\u201d Panda said <\/p>\n When they need care, they often seek it in high-cost emergency departments, he said.<\/p>\n Free clinics rely on nearby hospitals for some of their staff and for donated services, such as X-rays and other diagnostic tests. Penn Medicine will support the new clinic in West Philadelphia, just as it does existing federal health centers<\/a>, said Richard Wender, Penn\u2019s chair of family medicine, who was at Friday\u2019s event. <\/p>\n