While Congress dallies, desperate Americans seek free healthcare
Remote Area Medical Clinic (RAM) Dental area 2008- Scott County, TN (Image from alqi.org)
Update: The audio of my interview with RAM’S Stan Brock can be heard on Citizen Radio over here.
Yesterday, a group of six centrist and conservative Senators signed a letter to the Democratic and Republican leaders urging delay in consideration of health care reform. These moderates include Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Independent Joe Lieberman (D-CT), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), and Susan Collins (R-ME).
The day before these Senators signed a letter to effectively halt healthcare reform, citizens were just beginning to line up at Cocke County High School in East Tennessee for free healthcare provided by Remote Area Medical (RAM), a non-profit, volunteer relief corps dedicated to providing free health care, dental care, eye care, veterinary services, and technical and educational assistance to people in remote areas of the United States and the world.
Though registration would not officially start until Friday, and the doors would not open until Saturday, pre-registration had already filled up by Thursday, and the sessions were full (with a waiting list) before the clinic was ready to see patients.
This kind of turn-out isn’t unusual, Stan Brock, the founder of RAM told me by phone on his way to the high school.
We’re probably going to see people in the 700-800 range, which for us is a small turnout. At our larger clinics, we’ll give out 1500 numbers to patients during the course of the night because they come and they wait all night for these services. At the end of a weekend, we will have seen several thousand people. We’ve got one coming up in Los Angeles in eight days, and my guess if that there we’ll probably see many thousands of people by the time we’re finished there.
Rose Centers was already in line by noon on Friday. “The last time I tried to go to the dentist, it cost me $300, and all they done is a cleaning and X-rays,” she told WBIR.com. In America, where 62 percent of personal bankruptcies are linked to medical bills or illness, this kind of early turnout at Cocke County High School shouldn’t surprise anyone. Many Americans are poor, desperate, sick, and in need of some human compassion. Brock’s team doesn’t think their need should be exploited for financial gain.
As the engine of their medical van rumbles in the background, Brock shares some statistics with me. “You know, the World Health Organization rates the United States on the scale of 190 nations in their delivery of healthcare to the citizenry as number thirty-seven.” He then explains the history of the Great Britain (his native country) universal healthcare system. At the height of World War II, the population in Great Britain was around 49 million when Winston Churchill mandated universal healthcare coverage. “So when you think that 49 million people is about the number of people in [America] that don’t have access to healthcare, it’s roughly equivalent to the population of Great Britain at the end of World War II,” says Brock.
He means it’s a problem that has a solution. If Great Britain, which had been practically obliterated by German bombing (including 57 consecutive nights of air assault during The Blitz,) provided healthcare to every man, woman, and child, then surely America, a comparatively prosperous nation, could improve its own system.
Those politicians toying with the idea of a public-private hybrid model for healthcare reform should understand that the private sector’s prices inflation have made doctor visits unaffordable even to some people who have insurance. Brock told WBIR, “Now we are getting people who do have insurance and do have jobs but simply the co-pay perhaps prevents them from getting the services that they need, but they find they can’t afford it.”
But RAM doesn’t have the widespread reach of a universal healthcare program. They can only do so much. ”The sad part is,” Brock tells WBIR, “that we can’t see everybody, so on Sunday evening it’s going to be our sad problem to tell people ‘I’m sorry, but we can’t see any more.’”
Remote Area Medical is in constant need of volunteers. If you are interested in volunteering, visit their webpage here.
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[...] from Allison Kilkenny’s blog. Also available on Facebook and [...]
Consider this from AP:
The cost of buying and operating a new fleet of jet fighters for the U.S. military is nearing $1 trillion, according to a congressional audit that found the program dogged by delays, manufacturing inefficiencies and price increases.
Released Tuesday, the report from the Government Accountability Office offers a sobering assessment of the ambitious effort to deliver a modern series of aircraft known as the F-35 Lightning II to the Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/03/11/national/w154215D32.DTL#ixzz0LejK2rN5
Then this from Reuters:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s far-reaching plan to guarantee all Americans healthcare ran into trouble on Friday over its more than $1 trillion price tag, forcing Democrats to look for ways to reduce costs as they moved the bill forward.
The reason for upgrading aircraft was the competition with USSR over air superiority. Their is nothing to compete with our current fleet of fighter jets.
To paraphrase Susan Powter, “It is time to stop the insanity.”
Obama Campaign Arm Doubles Down, Targets House Dems On Health Care
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/18/obama-campaign-arm-double_n_239258.html)
Funny, I just went back and looked at that link I posted from Huffington and what did I find at the bottom of the page, a link to this article of yours on Huff!
I just don’t see any feasible way that our system can support universal healthcare? Especially with the economy the way it is? We need to stop spending period!! Then, maybe, just maybe, we will be able to dig our way out of this hole and deliver some sort of healthcare program to people. Until then, it is insane to even consider this type of healthcare overhaul. Just ridiculously insane.
“Until then, it is insane to even consider this type of healthcare overhaul.”
What is even more “ridiculously insane” is allowing thousands of Americans to die every year due to lack of health insurance.
Somehow, there’s always money for taking lives instead of saving them.
Barney Frank:
“When I am challenged by people–not all of them conservative–who tell me that they agree, for example, that we should enact comprehensive universal healthcare but wonder how to pay for it, my answer is that I do not know immediately where to get the funding but I know whom I should ask. I was in Congress on September 10, 2001, and I know there was no money in the budget at that time for a war in Iraq. So my answer is that I will go to the people who found the money for that war and ask them if they could find some for healthcare.”
I’m saying stop spending period. I am against the military spending as well. The problem is that every time our government feels like spending enormous amounts of money, they just go right ahead and do it. The problem with this healthcare issue is that WE DON’T HAVE ANY MONEY LEFT!!! WE ARE BROKE!!!
I guess you agree with the current administration that seems to think that government spending is the answer to all of our problems. However, that is a major part of what got us into this mess in the first place.
Please explain to me why people who save their money and who spend responsibly should have to pay for yet another huge government program? I am simply arguing that it does not make sense to spend money that we don’t have. That will only leave to problems down the road such as the devaluation of the dollar and price inflation. Those two things combined will completely ruin the world economy. Not to mention our taxes will continue to climb. There is no end in sight.
“I am simply arguing that it does not make sense to spend money that we don’t have.”
Nonsense. We have plenty of money. More than enough, in fact.
The U.S. spends a greater percentage of its GDP on health care than other industrialized nations, with worse results. If you take away the insurers’ ability to profit from monopolizing markets and denying care, then affordable, universal health care would not only pay for itself, but would actually cost less than what we now spend on health care (while getting better results).
“We have plenty of money. More than enough, in fact.”
You’re kidding, right? We are broke and the only reason we have not endured a total collapse is because of our ability to borrow from other nations. We have not even begun to feel the impact that will have on our economy. People do not realize what this will do to our economy in the near future.
Also, tell me how universal healthcare will pay for itself? If that is the case, then why haven’t we done it already? Nothing of value ever pays for itself.
Oh the US government can find a way to find the money to fulfil the basic Human right to healthcare, but has chosen to bend over to Big Business.
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/6/22/report_goldman_sachs_on_pace_to
“JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, I think you’ve made the point that the $780 billion-odd TARP money is only a small portion, that the actual federal support for the banking industry is about $13 trillion?
NOMI PRINS: That’s exactly right. The media has constantly focused, and Wall Street has been very happy about this focus, on this measly—and I say “measly”—$700 billion worth of TARP money that Congress allowed to be allocated last October. And that money has gone out to a number of banks, including Goldman and JPMorgan and Bank of America, Citigroup and other banks.
But in addition to that, there have been over two-and-a-half trillion dollars’ worth of guarantees and other types of subsidies from the Treasury Department; over seven-and-a-half trillion from the Federal Reserve, which a lot has gone through the bank at—the New York Federal Reserve during the Tim Geithner period, when he was running it, as well as the Federal Reserve component in Washington; and then all these extra FDIC guarantees, which have the backing of the Fed and the Treasury Department.
So we’re talking about almost 13.6, actually, now—the count keeps going up every time I look at it—trillion dollars’ worth of subsidization of the banking industry. $700 billion is a part—it’s a big part, but there are so many more trillions, that just do not get the right coverage and the right perspective from the media, that exists, that are secret. Some are not. But it’s a lot, a lot of money. It could basically pay for every single mortgage in this country and healthcare and subsidizing student loans. So when it wants to, the government can come up with a way to subsidize what it wants to subsidize. It chose to subsidize the banking industry.”
- – -
Trust me having lived in two countries with universal healthcare systems (Australia and Singapore), you (USA) NEED IT. It’s only idiots/conservatives/business that lie say that it’s impossible to implement. It’s not going to be hard work, so get off your arse and get this basic right to make it work.
I still don’t understand why in the USA, you need private insurance to access healthcare. For me, private insurance is something one applies for if they’d like a fancy hospital bed; instead of having a HMO screw you over. I’d rather pay more in taxes to the government for ‘free’ healthcare than a private company that is always looking for ways to screw me, at least with the government I can see it coming and act because of transparency and regulation.
And please, you guys need the single-payer system. NOT the so-called “public option”, because the politicians will triangulate and the public option will come out batted and bruised by the time it gets through Capitol Hill and Big Business will kill it in it’s weak form.
Single-payer… you guys NEED IT.
I think that some of you are confusing credit and wealth. We didn’t have the money for the bailouts either, that is all borrowed money that will eventually be paid back with taxpayer dollars. That debt also carries a pretty hefty interest rate, so we will be paying it back for the rest of our existence as a nation!
The bottom line is that our economy has been devastated due to lack of banking regulation made possible by President Clinton and the Republican led Congress. Everyone thought the were wealthy, but what they didn’t realize was that it would eventually come home to roost. And here we are…
“Health reform can help pay for itself, but both private and public insurance choices are critically important,” said Commonwealth Fund president Karen Davis. “A public insurance plan can help drive new efficiencies in the system that will produce large cost reductions. Without a public plan, much of those potential savings will be lost.”
That doesn’t mean it will pay for itself. What it tells me is that people who already have insurance through their employers will continue to see rising premiums. Also, taxes will help to subsidize insurance for people who have no coverage at all. It is all smoke and mirrors. We cannot pay for this without raising taxes or imposing more taxes. The only people who will see a reduction in the cost of insurance will be people who currently pay for it on their own. The bill for that will be footed by the American taxpayer after it is borrowed from other nations.
Face it man, we are heading for higher taxes and a greater separation between the wealthy and the poor. This is not going to go away and it will not pay for itself. Do not believe them when they tell us that.
[...] year, and citizens were already setting up camp outside the fairgrounds as early as Tuesday. (Click here to read my interview with RAM founder, Stan Brock.) Things are worse now, but they were still very [...]
[...] year, and citizens were already setting up camp outside the fairgrounds as early as Tuesday. (Click here to read my interview with RAM founder, Stan Brock.) Things are worse now, but they were still very [...]
[...] year, and citizens were already setting up camp outside the fairgrounds as early as Tuesday. (Click here to read my interview with RAM founder, Stan Brock.) Things are worse now, but they were still very [...]
[...] Very real issues like astroturfing, private healthcare industry donations to members of Congress, and Big Pharma’s private meetings with Obama go unreported or at best, underreported. The whole idea behind having a free media is to educate the populace. Unfortunately, what we have is a pack of oversized children that can’t focus on a single issue for more than five minutes, and constantly genuflect before the God of Personality that demands they obsessively document what strange amalgam of words Palin managed to string together this week. Meanwhile, Americans are uninsured, underinsured, and sometimes waiting in animal pens in to receive healthcare. [...]
[...] This summer, Remote Area Medical, a non-profit, volunteer relief corps dedicated to providing free health care, dental care, eye care, veterinary services, and technical and educational assistance to people in remote areas of the United States and the world, set up a free health clinic at Cocke County High School in East Tennessee. [...]
[...] countries. I spoke with RAM’s founder, Stan Brock, last summer when he was on his way to Cocke County High School in East Tennessee where the group was running another free clinic. (The full interview with Stan Brock can be heard [...]
[...] The idea that we don’t ration care now is insulting and disgusting — ask the people who waited in line for days to receive basic medical care. Or talk to Wendell Potter, the insurance executive turned [...]