I received an email the other day from a good friend asking me when I would post a diary on the Washington DC Free Clinic I attended last week. He said he's been waiting and waiting.
Truthfully, I feel so broken every time I leave one of these clinics that it takes me days to recover my center of gravity.
Those of us who have been blessed be present at a Free Clinic, to either help, and hold the hands of the most vulnerable among us, or, as I do, record the stories of this wrenching experience share a special bond.
One harried volunteer who was born overseas and is now a naturalized American citizen said to me as she wandered around during a brief break, that this, "model of healthcare" would be "ideal" in her native country. "What is your native country", I asked. She demurred and finally said, "Nigeria".
What we see up close at a Free Clinic is the specter of providing healthcare to American citizens on the floor of a convention center. If this is a "model" for delivering healthcare in Nigeria, why in the world is it happening in the United States, the richest country on the planet?
What follows are videos of a uniquely American depravity. Ask yourself, why can all the other industrialized nations of the world provide healthcare as a right to all citizens, but not the United States.
Why is it happening? Why are American citizens getting healthcare in convention centers? Two words. Political malpractice.
As you'll see if you watch the videos, healthcare remains a privilege not a right in the United States, and is a rationed commodity based on the ability to pay.
We need those we elect to do our business, to have the courage to make politically hard decisions. Democrats had that opportunity during the healthcare reform debate a year ago, and in the opinion of many, fumbled badly.
The collapse of the U.S. healthcare system, is an unspeakable ongoing tragedy. On Wednesday evening when I watched in disbelief Senator Debbie Stabenow, lumber off the ten foot high stage set up at the rear of the convention center for a live broadcast of the Ed Schultz Show, and casually walk out a back entrance without even a glance at the throngs patiently waiting for care, I realized that there is real and present danger that Democrats actually think their work is done.
The Washington DC Free Health Clinic - Broken Lives, Broken Healthcare and Political Malpractice
Most of the people who came were either unemployed (hence uninsured and unable to afford healthcare), or in part time work without health benefits, or simply very low income.
They had health problems which run the gamut from unimportant things (which don't qualify you for a slot in a new high risk pool), like undiagnosed hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease, to people with life threatening illnesses,like cancer and everything in between.
The Patient Protection Affordable Care Act does not provide any immediate benefits for all these people and millions of others
Meet Kimberly Branch, she's had a cyst on her eyelid for over a year. She won't go to an emergency room because she knows as an uninsured American she'll receive a huge bill, which would further damage her already precarious credit standing.
I had a revelation as I wandered through the throng of Americans patiently waiting for the chance to see a doctor. The highly touted immediate benefits of the PPACA, being heralded by the political class, really only impacts those already with employer provided benefits--people who still have their jobs, certainly not the 50 million uninsured (except for those uninsured who will attempt to gain entry to the high risk pools). Sadly though, the cohort of people who attend free clinics, can barely afford a tank of gas, much less huge insurance premiums.
No immediate benefits for a person like Minnie Presley.
Here are some facts about healthcare in Washington.
- More than 57,000 residents are uninsured (Kaiser Family Foundation)
- In the District of Columbia alone, 48,000 people reported not seeing a doctor because of cost during the last 12 months when asked by CDC.
- About 38% of small employers (50 or fewer employees) in the District of Columbia do not offer health insurance to their employees.
But you already know the dismal statistics.
Meet Michael Strickland. Michael is an unemployed and uninsured American. His last employment was as a Census worker. He came to the Free Clinic to get two $4.00 prescriptions refilled. One for hypertension the other for cholesterol. Without access to a doctor, he can't fill his prescription, without his medication, he risks a heart attack, stroke or worse. If a terrible medical event were to happen, imagine the costs and the human suffering, all because even getting a prescription costs money in the United States of America. This describes the depravity of our system.
There were five ambulance removals to area hospitals, I captured one on video.
Meet longtime Kossacks Blond Momentand Diesel Com. Self employed and uninsured citizens of West Virginia. I asked them how they planned on surviving between now and 2014, and Blond Moment said, "All we can do is take Allan Grayson's advice and stay healthy".
Did any politicians show up?
Yes, Donna Edwards, a rising star of the Democratic Party.
I was overcome with emotion watching Donna welcome some early arrivals to the clinic. Donna Edwards made history by becoming the first member of Congress to attend a Free Health Clinic. Donna is facing a nasty primary, she knew she wouldn't be meeting voters from her district at this clinic, but she came anyway. And God bless her for it.
(The Senate was in session, and yes, I know, some of you think that this esteemed body has more important things to do than come and see the ravages of the U.S. healthcare system.) We'll have to disagree on this. Christopher Hitchens writes in Vanity Fair about his battle with throat cancer, imagine enduring cancer without insurance.
The doctors were still seeing patients at 10PM.
In the United States, we ration care based on your ability to pay
Of all of the industrialized nations, the United States has the greatest amount of health care rationing, and we do that through a unique mechanism. We ration healthcare based on ability to pay. And if there is one human being who knows about this tragic reality better than most, it's Nicole Lamoureux.
I could put up many more videos, here's a link to my You Tube page which has additional videos, I have even more, which I haven't uploaded simply because it is so emotionally draining to relive this over and over.
If all of what you are seeing here makes you very upset, then please help us continue the fight to make healthcare a right, keep the message of Nicole Lamoureux firmly fixed in your brain. These patients vote, and they want to know when will they get some help.
And now you may feel as depressed as I do, and you want to pull your hair out, or even better move to a more enlightened nation. Here's what you can do right now, and we'll have much more in terms of action to tell you about in the Fall. Right now, we're in the regulatory phase of health care insurance reform. This is being led by HHS and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. HCAN has a handy dandy tool which gives you the telephone number for each state insurance department. Please call and tell your insurance commissioner you want the strongest possible, pro-consumer and pro-patient regulation of this predatory industry, which remains at the epicenter of our "reformed" healthcare system.
There are two more free clinics scheduled New Orleans on August 31st and September 1st and Charlotte, North Carolina on December 7th.
With your support and if finances permit, I will go to one or both of these and bring you the stories of Americans who despite 'reform' still have no where to turn but a free clinic for much needed healthcare.
If you want help us with a small donation we're immensely grateful to you.
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