COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTERS At YSU, Bush to laud clinic

The Youngstown visit is the only item on the president's itinerary for Tuesday.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- President Bush will discuss the importance of community health-care centers during an appearance Tuesday at the Spotlight Theatre at Youngstown State University's Bliss Hall, a White House spokesman said.
"He's coming to Youngstown to talk about the good work being done in the Youngstown area in the field of community health centers," said Jim Morrell.
The president's discussion at the small YSU theater, which holds no more than a few hundred people, will be open to invited guests only.
In attendance will be local politicians, but there will also be "doctors, health-care professionals and people interested in the health-care field," Morrell said.
Intimate setting
The "intimate setting" of the Spotlight Theatre was chosen to give those in attendance the opportunity to discuss the issue with the president, Morrell said.
There will be about five people on the main stage with the president discussing the issue and Bush's plans to improve community health care, Morrell said.
Morrell said the names of those to be onstage will be released Tuesday, shortly before the discussion. But he said Dr. Betty Duke, administrator of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Health Resources and Services Administration, will attend.
HRSA has a $7.21 billion annual budget that is used to expand access to health care to Americans -- particularly those with low incomes, the uninsured and those with special needs -- through grants to state and local governments, health-care providers and health professions' training programs.
Bush is expected to land at the Youngstown Air Reserve Station at 12:50 p.m. Tuesday and be taken by motorcade to a Youngstown health-care clinic, then to the Spotlight Theatre.
Clinic stop
Bush is expected to stop at Youngstown Community Health Center, on Wick Avenue. The federally funded clinic provides basic health care for uninsured and needy people such as for blood-pressure, cancer and asthma screenings. White House officials were at the clinic this morning. That stop is not listed on the president's official itinerary.
Bush is scheduled to speak about 2 p.m. at YSU.
The Youngstown visit is the only item on the president's itinerary for Tuesday, Morrell said.
The president is preparing a major speech for 8 tonight to be televised nationwide from the Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., outlining the nation's plans for the next five weeks before the June 30 transfer of political power in Iraq.
After delivering his speech at YSU, the president will return to the Air Reserve Station and fly to the White House.
Dinner with McKelvey
The president is holding a private 25-person dinner Wednesday. Among the invited guests is Youngstown Mayor George M. McKelvey. McKelvey hopes he can fly on Air Force One to Washington, D.C., with the president the day before the dinner. Morrell didn't rule out that possibility but said he wasn't certain it would happen.
This would be Bush's 17th visit to Ohio since he took office in 2001, and his first to Youngstown as president. He came to Youngstown on a train in August 2000, the day after he was selected as the Republican presidential candidate at the party's national convention.
Ohio is considered a key battleground state in the presidential race. U.S. Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has visited the Mahoning Valley twice this year.
skolnick@vindy.com