Case for Support
Every hard working uninsured individual in our community deserves to have access to high-quality healthcare, a fact that has become even more evident in recent years.
Even with the Affordable Care Act, nearly 90,000 people remain uninsured in San Francisco and San Mateo counties — with 25% of this population in our neighborhood — Mission District, Excelsior and northern San Mateo County. Too many suffer from illness or chronic disease that has gone unchecked or undiagnosed because they simply cannot afford to see a doctor.
Clinic by the Bay believes that quality primary care is a human right. We exist to provide the very people who fuel our economy – restaurant workers, working students, single mothers, and day laborers – with free access to medical care. In doing so, we simultaneously meet the needs of this population and strengthen the fabric of our entire community.
Background
Since 2010, our goal has been simple, but ambitious: operate a free volunteer-powered health clinic. With over 27,000 patient visits since our opening, Clinic by the Bay is reminded daily that for many of the working uninsured, our free clinic is the difference between life and death.
Founded by Janet Reilly and Scott Hauge, Clinic by the Bay has a committed Board of Directors composed of doctors, business leaders, philanthropists, and nonprofit specialists who passionately care about access to healthcare for the underserved.
Clinic By The Bay is affiliated with Volunteers in Medicine (VIM). VIM is a nonprofit that engages an often untapped workforce — retired physicians, nurses, educators, and others — to provide comprehensive primary care to the uninsured and underserved. We are truly 100% free for our patients, who could not afford care otherwise. We leverage medical partnerships that allow us to support our patients beyond our doors with a free pharmacy and specialist access.
How You Can Help
Clinic by the Bay’s mission – to understand and serve, with dignity and respect, the health and wellness needs of the medically underserved in the San Francisco Bay Area – is served with every patient who walks through our door. And because we do not take any government funding or insurance, our ability to serve our working uninsured neighbors is entirely dependent on the generosity of volunteers, individual donors, corporations, and foundations. Coupled with the time, skill, and talent of our volunteers, we depend on cash to support our operations.