CrossOver appeal

Hope Award | A Christian health clinic becomes a safety net for the uninsured | Emily Belz

Photo by James Allen Walker for WORLD

RICHMOND, Va.—By noon on a Thursday this summer, whites, Hispanics, African-Americans, and a woman with bubblegum pink hair packed the waiting room at the CrossOver health clinic here. Despite the high traffic, the clinic did not feel like a warehouse of sick people—everything was orderly and clean, as in a good private practice.

That sensibility is intentional, because clinic founders wanted patients to sense that they are receiving the best care, not something second rate because it's free. CrossOver is evidence that not everything in U.S. medical care for the poor is dysfunctional. While doctors at CrossOver agree reform is needed, their ministry has succeeded in using parts of the system that work: They serve 4,300 uninsured patients a year on a $2.5 million budget.