Research shows that getting to the doctor is more than half the battle — and it is one that not everyone gets to wage equally.

Reuters writes about a study published this month shows that race and employment status impact how long people in the U.S. wait to get health care. Read more here.

The research, publish in the Journal of the American Medical Association in internal medicine publication is linked here.

In a community like the Pensacola Metro Area, where some 60 percent of people are overweight or obese, a public health measure that impacts productivity, costs and the impression of the fitness of our workforce, the wait can mean a lot.

Time off from work. Time lost to travel. Time that some of us don't have to spare.

Smoking and obesity-related health issues cost Pensacola area employers nearly $800 million in 2013. Money that those businesses could have invested in adding jobs, improving their services, expanding their bottom lines or who know what else.

We ate a diet that is wildly unhealthy, and many of us do so because it is cheaper than healthy food. Escambia County Commissioners recently finalized a budget request from Escambia Community Clinics for the coming fiscal year that will give the clinic $431,880.

It will help the clinic, which serves the medically needy and uninsured through primary, dental, mental health, pediatric services, continue its work, which included 89,000 outpatient visits this fiscal year. The clinic also is searching for a new home; it's Palafox Street clinic had 2 and 1/2 feet of water in it during the April 2014 flooding. I is operating out of a temporary home on West Jordan Street.

Here's hoping the clinic gets into bigger, more accommodating digs soon. Clearly, the community needs them.