In the recent issue of the Catholic Times a featured article for the International Day of the Sick was on the journey of free medical care in Korean churches. A church that cares for the sick is serving the Lord.
The Korean church is running free clinics to take care of those in the blind spot of medical benefits.
"I couldn’t go to the hospital even though the bleeding didn’t stop all night, so I went to see a priest who works as a pastor for migrants." The operation of the free clinic could not be stopped because there are still desperate people who live among us who in serious poverty need medical care.
Sister director of Ansan Vincent Clinic, talked about the story of a Thai migrant worker who barely saved her life after being introduced to the Clinic through her priest. She explained why free clinics should exist in our society. Even though there are many hospitals around, the reason why they cannot go to the hospital is because of 'poverty'. The cruel situation in which money and life are dependent on each other in the Republic of Korea in 2023, not in a developing country. Ahead of the 31st World Day of the Sick (February 11), we introduce the journey of the Church walking with the marginalized and poor.
"The poor are our Lords"
In the 1950s after the war, Korea was overflowing with people suffering from poverty and disease. It was the church that held the hand of the poor in a situation where even rebuilding the ruined city was not enough. At that time, many missionaries came to Korea to do relief work. Free medical treatment was also one of the important missionary activities.
The missionary Franciscan Sisters of Mary, who entered Korea in 1958, opened the St. Mary's Hospital and stayed among the poor and marginalized. The Maryknoll Foreign Missionary Sisters established the Maryknoll Clinic in Jeungpyeong, North Chungcheong Province, and took care of the sick. Hope Clinic, built in Daejeon in 1956, also provided free medical treatment to people suffering from poverty and disease after the war.
The medical support of religious orders, which began in the late 1950s, continued even after the scars of war were healed. Because there were still people who suffered from poverty. Monsignor So Aloisio, the founder of the Sisters of Mary, witnessed the situation in which orphans, beggars, and homeless people who lost their parents in the war were mistreated in hospitals and were not properly treated. He Established in 1982, Doty Memorial Hospital as a free charity hospital for marginalized neighbors in our society, such as the severely disabled, homeless, and foreign workers, in accordance with the wishes of George E, Doty.
Afterwards, Joseph Clinic in Seoul (1987), Seongga Welfare Hospital in Hawolgok-dong, Seoul (1990), and Seongsim Welfare Clinic in Namsan-dong, Daegu (1992) opened one after another. These hospitals are operated based on the common gospel values of 'serving those suffering from poverty and disease' and 'caring for them with warm love'.
The church's journey to practice 'the love of Christ' also collided with some outside the church. Doty Memorial Hospital received administrative guidance not to waive or discount the patient's co-payment for the reason that it causes damage to nearby hospitals. Eventually, Dotty Memorial Hospital closed in 2017. The reason why church hospitals do not stop providing free medical treatment for the poor, despite the ups and downs, has not changed for a long time. Because ‘the poor are our lords’
The columnist was curious about the identity of the foreigners who came to the neighborhood where all the shops were closed, so he followed one of them and stopped at Ansan Vincent Clinic. Unlike the empty outside, the inside of the clinic was crowded with foreign patients. People from various countries gathered here, including a Gabonese who came for a prenatal check-up, a Russian who came to get high blood pressure medicine, and a Cameroonian who injured his back while working.
Ansan Vincent Clinic, which opened as a free clinic, treats patients in extreme poverty who cannot use medical institutions because they do not have a health insurance card or protection card. Most of the patients are undocumented foreign workers. The target that the Korean church should be interested in has expanded to foreigners who do not receive medical benefits. Since the 2000s, foreign workers who came to Korea to earn money did not receive health insurance benefits and could not go to the hospital even if they were sick. Because they couldn't afford the expensive hospital bills.
To take care of those in the blind spot of medical benefits, the church opened Seoul Raphael Clinic (1997), Chuncheon Jericho Clinic (2003), Incheon Catholic Free Clinic, and Ansan Vincent Clinic (2004) one after another.
Sister Yang Su-ja, director of Ansan Vincent Clinic, said: "If there were many foreign workers in the 2000s looking for free clinics, climate refugees and war refugees have been looking for clinics since 2015." . As health insurance benefits for migrant workers have been expanded, the number of visits to clinics by Chinese, Vietnamese and Filipinos has decreased, but the number of patients from Africa and the Middle East has increased. Sister Yang explained that most of those who couldn't even think of going to the hospital because they had to work and live every day went to a free clinic only when they became ill and in a desperate situation.
"Foreign mothers are more likely to give birth prematurely or give birth to high-risk newborn babies due to unstable circumstances," said Father Kim chairperson of the Inchon Diocese Committee for Migrant Pastoral Care. We are looking for ways we can help.
Sister Yang also said: "Unregistered foreigners cannot get out of the bondage of poverty and when they cannot find a job and get sick the free clinics are their only resort." She added, "As the operation of free clinics has slowed down due to Corona 19, it is difficult to supply medical volunteers." She hopes that we will continue to be concerned with the poor sick in our society.
