"When you drive past Phoenixville, it seems like a place everyone builds their McMansions," but the clinic's own research has shown "10,000 uninsured within a 2.5 mile radius," Stuart said.
"In a lot of cases, those uninsured might be a white-collar worker who's just lost his job, but perhaps he's diabetic or hypertensive, the medication's something he can't afford while he's . . . getting his family back together."
The clinic will get its funding from private sources, according to Stuart. This summer, it received a $200,000 donation from an anonymous local citizen, and a $125,000 gift from Elizabeth Conway, an investment banker who grew up in the building that will house the clinic. Stuart said the clinic will cost about $280,000 per year to operate, and so far it has raised about $400,000.
Experts say Stuart's clinic raises timely questions about whom medical clinics ought to serve and, more broadly, whether the current economy's particulars mean that changing definitions of poverty are needed.
But some critics have said that Stuart may be running ahead of socioeconomic realities.
Natalie Levkovich, executive director of the Health Consortium of Greater Philadelphia, said she was hesitant about clinics that do not explicitly cater to the very poor - a group, she said, that still is "underserved."
Stuart and clinic administrator Elliott Bennett said they do not expect a flood of laid-off architects and accountants at the Clinic at St. Peter's. They expect that most of their clients will qualify for treatment at free clinics with poverty guidelines. But they want to make sure, they said, that medical care in Phoenixville is open to everyone who needs it.
