People in Middle Georgia attend the Code-Med annual health fair on Saturday at the Anderson Conference Center to receive free screenings and learn new information about health care.

The Medical of Center Georgia sponsored event featured booths from over 75 community organizations. With the price of health care increasing in Georgia and around the country, people are finding it hard to pay for a regular check-up. The fair allows people to come in and get a free screening and learn about health symptoms early on before it develops into a critical issue.

"You might find something out today,” health care participant Bobby Temple said. “Instead of waiting six months or nine months later to find out that I've got a problem.”

The booths at the fair to offered information on a variety of topics including cancer, AIDS, and wellness. A few gave free health screenings covering a variety of areas and ailments. For a small fee people could get an AngioSreen as well. Cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death according to the World Health Organization. Director of Code-Med, Charles Krauss, encourages people to come for a check-up whether they have health insurance or not.

"This is the only time they can get a blood pressure screening, the only time they can get a cholesterol or glucose check, so people are very appreciative, Krauss said."

New statistics recently released show U.S health care spending is outpacing economic growth. For some people who have a health condition, the fair offers a multitude of information.

“I have a heart condition and they have heart information and I like to follow up on that," health fair participant Karen French said.
The health fair isn't just about medical screenings, parents brought their children to be identified by the Georgia Child Identification Program as well."

"Kids are constantly trying to get out of your reach,” French said. They might get or somebody might take them and I wanted to have that information available in case they needed it."

Officials wrote down each child's height, age, weight, took their fingerprints and recorded their voices to a CD. If a child goes missing parents can give the information to police.

In the last five years, the Georgia Child Identification Program has identified more than 68,000 children.