Business booms at Des Moines-area discount clinics

Des Moines, IA-area clinics that provide free or discounted care are seeing extra business, apparently because of the slumping economy. The facilties that offer discounted treatment are feeling the pressure: At Broadlawns Medical Center, Polk County, IA's public hospital, the number of uninsured patients rose 12%, to 45,798, in the six months ending Feb. 28, compared with the same period a year earlier. At Primary Health Care, a federally subsidized agency that runs clinics in Des Moines and Marshalltown, the number of uninsured patients rose from 13,259 in 2007 to 14,773 in 2008, and agency leaders say the increases appear to be continuing.