The Good Doctor Of Paint Lick
Honored By His Peers

By Ted Cox
tcox@garrardcentralrecord.com

When Dr. John Belanger started the Paint Lick Family Clinic in 2000, he was operating on nothing but faith that his vision would come true. That vision was affordable health care for those who couldn’t afford insurance in a place he was really and truly needed.

Belanger’s vision first began to take shape in his youth as he and his family drove through rural parts of Kentucky when he saw a sign reading, “WE NEED A DENTIST.” He thought to himself how nice it would be to be in a place he was really needed. Years later after going into medicine and working for the Community Health Center in McKee, near Berea, he landed, inexplicably, in that very place.

While driving, yet again on rural Kentucky roads, he came across a building in Paint Lick where the Friends of Paint Lick is located and immediately envisioned a medical service there in the row of building just north of the Garrard-Madison County line.

While working for the Community Health Center, Belanger was pleased with the work done there. However because the practice was federally funded, he saw those that didn’t qualify slipping through the cracks.

“In my mind I couldn’t put that together with my mission of helping people,” Belanger said, “though we did a lot of good for a lot of people at the Health Center.”

After eleven years in McKee, he decided to open a practice in which not a single person was turned away due to resources.

In just ten months time, with the help of Friends of Paint Lick founder Dean Cornett, nearly $200,000 was raised. The garage located next door to Cornett’s building was gutted to eventually house the Paint Lick Family Clinic, a community-owned non-profit organization with a mission to provide excellent health care regardless of the patient's ability to pay. Construction began in June of 2000 and was completed that September.

Belanger treats all of his patients as equals at a fee averaging around $20. The clinic is open four days a week (closed on Wednesday) for about ten hours each day.

Paint Lick Family Clinic maintains a low overhead to provide care at the lowest cost possible. The clinic operates on a cash-only basis, independent of federal funding and insurance companies, which allows them the flexibility to focus on providing services rather than concentrating on reimbursements.

Patients are asked to pay what they can, when they can. The clinic never turns away patients because of their inability to pay.

The low overhead also is made possible by Belanger's requested salary, which is at a level less than many first-year family medicine residents.

Belanger was recently awarded the 2009 Citizen Doctor of the Year Award by the Kentucky Academy of Family Physicians.

The Citizen Doctor of the Year Award honors a community-minded family physician who provides compassionate, comprehensive care. The award recognizes physicians for their service as role models in their communities, both professionally and personally, with nominations submitted by other health-care professionals, physicians in training and medical staff.

A press release from Saint Joseph in Berea praised Belanger's commitment.

"Belanger lives by his mission. In one account of his service, a Hispanic mother was looking for medical care for an ill child late on a Friday afternoon,” the release from Katie Heckman  the hospital's community relations manager, stated. “After being told by numerous offices they would not be seen unless they could pay a sizable fee up front, they came across the name of Dr. Belanger. Upon being contacted, he waited in his office until the mother and child could arrive, which lasted well into the evening. A contribution to the clinic was all that was asked for, only if there was ability to give. (…) When he made it his mission to start the Paint Lick Family Clinic, the community opened their wallets, lifted their hammers, and joined their hearts with his to make the clinic a reality. Picture a doctor with hammer in hand and stethoscope hanging around his neck."

Belanger, a humble man, says he gets a bit too much credit though.

“It has always been easy for me because of those around me who’ve helped pull this all together,” he said. “I get too much credit for this stuff. This was all made possible through community support from churches, schools and other organizations and my amazing staff, without ever asking. I just happen to be the one in the white coat, so I get all the credit.”

Belanger has three employees at the Family Clinic; Pattie Smithson, office manager, and two medical assistants, one full-time and one part-time, Michelle Cates and Linda Green.

The other factor that Belanger attributes his recognition to is the state of the healthcare system in America.

“Healthcare is hard to find,” he said. “The fact is that people can’t get healthcare when they need it. And these aren’t just folks who are sponging off of society.”

Belanger pointed out that one-third of the working US population is uninsured.

“It will be hard to change, but there’s only so much of the pie to go around. Some will have to give so that others can get.”

The American Academy of Family Physicians suggests going to www.factcheck.com or www.politifact.com to learn which statements about healthcare reform are true and which are not.

By making affordable health-insurance coverage possible and by increasing the number of primary-care doctors, healthcare reform will give citizens both the insurance coverage for high-quality health care and a personal physician who can provide that care, he said.

“We are finally ready, in this country, to realize that health care is a basic need of life,” Belanger said.