DODGEVILLE, Wis. -- Approximately 9 percent of the population of Iowa County has no health insurance.

Free Health Clinic Has Big Plans For The Future

That goes hand-in-hand with the national statistic that shows 16.5 percent of the adult American public are without health insurance, which amounts to 41 million adults.

The numbers prompted a new Iowa County doctor to get the ball rolling on a free health clinic, the first of its kind in Southwestern Wisconsin.

"There’s a lot of reasons why people have poor access to care, so it makes sense that there is a need here," said Dr. Aaron Dunn.

The rural county comprises of farm families, migrant workers, the Amish community and those with little means.

"In an area that hasn't had a free clinic ever, people just rely on the E.R. for their urgent care and everyday needs," said Dunn.

But he said the flip side to that is emergency rooms backed up with patients who could have been treated in a clinic, and skyrocketing costs to others.

"People who do have insurance end up absorbing those costs," said Dunn. "It really is a snowballing effect driving up premiums. Everyone ends up paying for it in the end."

So Dunn and a core group of 12 volunteers worked tirelessly over the past year securing a space, and the equipment they would need to help those patients with no where else to turn.

They were given a space in the back of the Family Resource Center building in downtown Dodgeville.

They built walls, examination rooms, even a lab.

The donations began pouring in. Equipment was donated and the local hospital kicked in $60,000 to get them up and running.

"People are just donating at random, volunteering at random," said Dunn. "It’s really been an inspiring thing to see the community come around it."

Volunteers couldn’t line up fast enough.

"It’s amazing," said Dunn. "You put the word out in the paper, we started this a year ago and people just came out of the woodwork."

Now, every Tuesday, a volunteer team of doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, lab technicians, social workers and receptionists will staff the clinic between the hours of 2 p.m. and 6 p.m.

"It’s going to increase access to care throughout the whole Southwestern region of Wisconsin, but we’re also hoping it’s going to increase awareness of people in the community that there are people in the community that can’t get the health care you have," said Dunn. "We need to start doing something about it."

The clinic will see patients, regardless of income, for an initial visit.

However, they will regularly see patients who are uninsured or underinsured and living at or below the poverty line.

A family of four making $40,000 or less would be eligible, so would a single person making $19,600 or less.

"Hopefully people will come in to get regular screenings, get checked for diabetes, get checked for high blood pressure because some people are walking down the street and don't know they have it," said Dunn.

Organizers are most excited by the clinic’s location.

It is sharing a building with the Family Resource Center, a social service agency already providing services to families in need.

As one person put it, "There’s no wrong door here."

"Hopefully people coming in for other resources will recognize our clinic here and be able to pick up some information here and say, 'This is something that I need,'" said Dunn. "Then we can investigate their situation and really see if they qualify for any other resources they weren't aware of, or if they qualify for our clinic."

The clinic is already preparing to expand.

Volunteers will soon start a major fundraising campaign to remodel the ground floor of the current building, making room for an updated medical and dental clinic.

Anyone interested in donating to the clinic can call (608) 930-2232.