Countdown Goes To Free Clinic: 'Hard To Believe I Was In America'
(h/t Heather at VideoCafe)
Rich Stockwell, senior producer at MSNBC's "Countdown", writes about his experiences at the free clinic funded by viewer contributions:
New Orleans, La. — - It happened as I watched a 50-something woman walk out, after spending several hours being attended to by volunteer doctors. "She's decided against treatment. A reasonable decision under the circumstances," the doctor tells us as she heads for the next patient. The president of the board of the National Association of Free Health Clinics tells me why: "It's stage four breast cancer, her body is filled with tumors." I don't know when that woman last saw a doctor. But I do know that if she had health insurance, the odds she would have seen a doctor long ago are much higher, and her chances for an earlier diagnosis and treatment would have been far greater.
After watching for hours as the patients moved through the clinic, it was hard to believe that I was in America.
Eighty-three percent of the patients they see are employed, they are not accepting other government help on a large scale, not "welfare queens" as some would like to have us believe. They are tax-paying, good, upstanding citizens who are trying to make it and give their kids a better life just like you and me.
Ninety percent of the patients who came through Saturday's clinic had two or more diagnoses.
Eighty-two percent had a life-threatening condition such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or hypertension. They are victims of a system built with corporate profits at its center, which long ago forgot the moral imperative that should drive us to show compassion to our fellow men and women.
Health reform is not about Democrats or Republicans or who can score political points for the next election, it's about people. It's about fairness and justice in a system that knows none. I'd defy even the most hardened capitalist-loving-conservative to do what I did on Saturday and continue to pretend that the system in place right now is working.
Countdown chose to highlight and raise money for the Association of Free Clinics because we knew the work they do is so vitally important and we wanted to show in real terms how great the need is. We invited several politicians to attend so they could see first hand how critical the situation is. All declined. Some explained that they talk with constituents all the time and know very well of the need for reform.
I have news for them, these people didn't need to speak. Their actions spoke far louder than any words. Having to get a check up and diagnosis at a free clinic because they have no other option tells you all you need to know. There are no words that can accurately describe the quiet desperation on the faces of the patients. Every single one I spoke to, and every one I heard talking with doctors, expressed their gratitude for the event and wished that they were held more often.
I'm so proud of New Orleans and I hope that word gets out how successful this was. There clearly needs to be some serious changes made to our health care system and denying it just won't work anymore.
of how our nation would be destroyed by universal healthcare. I mean just imagine the horror - a much higher percentage of healthier, happier, more productive citizens!
(end snark)
...where to get the rest of my rotten teeth pulled, and then dentures. All the years that I worked as a single mom, I still had my kids on Medicaid and often food stamps too, because I was so poorly paid. The kids all have great teeth. I don't; only extractions were covered for me. No preventative care. No fillings nor cleaning nor anything else.
"Courtesy is owed. Respect is earned. Love is given." --Unknown author, found in Guide to Texas Etiquette by Kinky Friedman
I'm glad you made that comment because I sincerely believe that dental care should be covered in whatever bill makes it out of the house and senate. It's every bit as important as any other health care.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
Agreed. The dental care I needed murdered me financially when I could handle every other medical problem (namely because I didn't really *have* any problems except for lousy teeth). I didn't have insurance and so I walked around at certain points in my life in pain for days and weeks because I hadn't yet scraped together money to see a dentist for some work.
Mary, that's so sad ... are there any community clinics in your area that offer services on a sliding scale? Is there a university with a dental school near you?
Not to invade your privacy, but what area of the country are you in? (Site Monitor -- is it OK if I ask this?) I could do some research on resources in your area.
...for a few days off afterward. I'm in NE Texas, in grad school, with a lot of academic work to do until my winter break. Some then, too; a couple of papers for conferences I've been accepted to (damn my ugly teeth! really looks bad for someone who wants to be a professor!)
Here's how I deal with the pain, though: http://royaloil.org There is no pain, amazingly. Just teeth falling out or breaking off.
"Courtesy is owed. Respect is earned. Love is given." --Unknown author, found in Guide to Texas Etiquette by Kinky Friedman
It's a CRIME that dental and eye care have been notoriously excluded from various medical insurance plans!
In MaryK's situation the gum disease etc. associated with the loss of teeth etc. can directly affect the cardiovascular system, renal system etc. They are now saying that gum disease and bleeding gums can be a direct link to cardiac disease/plaque formation in arteries etc.
Dental health is of paramount importance to one's overall health.
And eye care is critical as well. People generally think of getting their eyes examined when the teevee is out of focus etc. There are other reasons to have a yearly eye exam beyond the quality of one's vision. Glaucoma and even malignant melanoma of the eye can be diagnosed early and can (hopefully) be successfully treated before blindness/death occur!
We had a family friend who was only about 35 years old. He went in for a routine exam and they discovered malignant melanoma in his eye. He was dead a year later, even with aggressive treatment at Jules Stein at UCLA.
I fear there will be no coverage for dental and eye care in the final bill. But there most certainly should be.
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
.... until then, I'll keep going to Mexico for Dental work. Not what I would prefer to do, but costs are 1/3 to 1/4 as much.
I suspect I will retire to Mexico in order to afford medical care as many boomers are doing. Hope the Mexicans don't go all anti-white immigration on us for being a drain on their services.
Good luck, Mary.
After all my teeth fall out.
"Courtesy is owed. Respect is earned. Love is given." --Unknown author, found in Guide to Texas Etiquette by Kinky Friedman
The fact that no politicians would bother to appear is an indication of how tragically (for the American people) they are all tied in to industry. They don't want to know the reality because it might put them in a moral bind for what they have already decided to do--tell taxpaying Americans with health issues that they will continue to support a system that essentially is a form of passive eugenics.
We invited several politicians to attend so they could see first hand how critical the situation is. All declined.
"Hell no, we won't go!"
I know I sound like a broken record, but the fact is that what we are seeing is the result of a bad turn made 30 years ago.
We are the living in the aftermath of the forest fire that was privatization and deregulation. It left nothing untouched. Financial services, the environment, energy, health, communications, education....nothing has been left unscarred.
Events like this are wonderful for the small amount of people that they impact, but frankly...they are garden hoses putting out the brush fires after the forest has burned down.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
the commodification of war, health, natural resources (like water), news/info is not slowing down either. we missed our chance for real financial reform last year, and if the health (insurance) reform continues down the path it is on now, we will have missed that opportunity too.
both parties and the msm are desperate to keep the status quo with all of the aforementioned.
This isn't a 'modern' crisis - it's been something we've been sinking towards for a long time, and it's typical of the GOP/conservatives, just like their stewardship of our economy, our national security, and our freedoms.
FOX News isn't a lone roach scuttling across the kitchen floor in the middle of the night, it's a whole fucking nest living in the walls.
Reagan started this country on a road to ruin (for working folks anyway) and the sad part of this is that so many working folks bought into his line of shit. Now these same folks, who hate more than anything, admitting to mistakes, have become tea-baggers.
.......to the richest country on earth!
dandy
The right keeps saying that we don't need "government run healthcare" because the community is supposed to step up and provide. What these idiots fail to realize is that, when the community is suffering, even when they pitch in, you end up with stopgap worst-case-scenario catch-as-catch-can stuff like these campground clinics.
As with private schools vs. homeschooling, or gated communities vs. civic services, the richest 1% want to slowly eliminate the middle class and return to the days of landed gentry and the peasantry. (Sarah Palin is just an example of a duchess pretending to be a peasant.)
The right can never make any meaningful distinction between the community helping and the government helping. They have no logical definitions, only caricatures and fairy-tale characters.
It's called "slumming". And yes, it is about killing off the middle class, historically what ruined the feudal system.
"Courtesy is owed. Respect is earned. Love is given." --Unknown author, found in Guide to Texas Etiquette by Kinky Friedman
The FQHC (Federally Qualified Health Center) system has been doing this sort of work (with community clinics, etc) for quite a few years now. It's the government's attempt to keep the lowest income tier from slipping through the healthcare cracks.
They are more about providing care with a sliding scale than anything else, but it's getting to the point where the current locations are being overwhelmed by patient who are being pushed out of private practitioner's offices due to lack of insurance, etc.
Amazing. We're driving towards making the United States into a third world country. Fucking spineless congress. Couldn't just do the right thing and pass HR676, had to fuck us all.
everything is run like a fire drill, rather than taking the effort to fix what is broken.
Where is the corporate MSM on this?
Thanks, Keith! I can almost forgive you for not voting
for this.
Most doctors and nurses want to work as doctors and nurses, umkay?
The majority of Americans would probably like to open their mail and find pretty little debit type cards that have their names on them and the logo "Medicare for All". All they'd have to do is call ANY DOCTOR THEY LIKE, make an appointment for a physical etc., go to that doctor, be cared for and at the end simply hand them the card. The receptionist would take down the number from the card and send "the bill" to one of the central locations for payment and the doctor's office/hospital/nursing home/dentist/eyecare provider would be re-imbursed.
There are only two tiny hiccups involved in this very simple solution:
1.) The Pentagon would need to be seriously down-sized in order to fund the launching/maintenance of the best healthcare system on Earth. Our international military ambitions would need to be curtailed. We would have to make a conscious decision as a country that we can no longer afford to attain global hegemony. That our military service members would only be placed in harms way in order to protect the American people here in "The Homeland". It really isn't very intelligent to send them to places where they are not wanted or where the leadership in those places is totally corrupt (Afghanistan/Pakistan/Iraq). As a country we need to tighten our belts and only spend money on necessities...like making sure all our citizens are healthy.
2.) All the "for-profit" health insurance corporations and big pharmaceutical corporations who accept billions of our tax dollars in subsidies in order to exist will have to go bye-bye. Especially the health insurance corporations. We simply do not need them. There will be no more "we don't cover that" or "you need this much for a co-pay or deductible". End game. The pharmaceutical corporations who now accept millions of tax payer dollars for research and development of medications should be (in my opinion) "nationalized". The American people don't "want" quality medications that are safe for lowering cholesterol, or for safe birth control, or safe "vaccines" etc. We NEED these medications for survival/quality of life. At the least we need these pharmaceutical corporations that accept huge amounts of our tax dollars to be in positions where they will negotiate FAIR drug prices for ALL OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.
And one last thing. The way the "new" health care legislation is being crafted (and The failed Mass Plan IS the template), Americans will be charged premiums based on their income. Their penalties for not having insurance will be based on their previous years "income". Do you know what people in Mass. are doing? They are purposely cutting back on their jobs so they can make "less" money and can therefore have a cheaper health care premium or cheaper penalty. Obviously if they are deciding they cannot afford the premium that the magic "exchange" says they can AND pay the oil heating bill, they will pay the heating bill, drop the insurance and opt for the penalty. Which means they STILL WON'T HAVE MEDICAL INSURANCE!!
A Single Payer/Universal Health Care System (as outlined up top) would encourage every American to make as much money as their little hearts desire!!! They can be raging little capitalists and NOT WORRY ABOUT THEIR PREMIUMS/CO-PAYS/PENALTIES GOING HIGHER!!
I realize how enamored Susie and John and others are with the legislation that was passed a few weeks ago in the House. But I'm telling everyone here that once the Senate settles on it's bill and the two are joined together and Obama signs the legislation into law the American people will NOT be served by this. The ONLY winners will be the for-profit insurance corporations, big pharma, the Congress members who have cozy $$$$$ relationships with said corporations and the DNC in general (even some in the Republican Party are sucking at this corporate teat).
This legislation is so bad that even MEDICARE is getting cut!!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/...
Consider that we are all paying our taxes, then these tax dollars will be used to subsidize payments to the for-profit corporations then these corporations will use our tax dollars to contribute to the very Congress members who are stabbing us all in our collective backs!
I know when I'm being screwed. Do you?
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
Funny how all these people so concerned about passing on health care debts to children were no where to be found when we tried so hard to fill that hole in the iraqi desert with hundred dollar bills.
We have to publically finance elections and get the corporate big bucks out of politics.
....and possibly re-educate an entire generation mentored by the likes of Limbaugh and Beck.
The Capitalists, the Imperialists are in control. Their guy, the Pope of Hope (R-Big Business) is the front man.
It was an utterly brilliant deception, the first black president. The people fell for it hook line and sinker.
No meaningful program will come forward. None was ever intended.
The die has been cast for over a hundred years. Mark Twain was perhaps the last great hope of anti-imperialism with great wit.
It was only the depth of the Great Depression that brought leftward movement but that was overthrown with the victory of the American Fascists in the war.
It has been a downward spiral every since.
Meanwhile, if this health care charade travesty passes, Medicare will be gutted, the rolls of Medicaid will swell while the number of service providers that accept it will probably fall and the for-profit health insurance mafia will be get millions of new subsidized suckers for their morally defective product.
The Pope of Hope will give a rousing speech and many easily impressionable people will think that everything is fine.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
It's truly insane. We live in a world that is stark raving mad. Money matters more than people? How in the hell did that ever happen? What the fuck is wrong with us? Half of the world (THE WORLD!!!!!!) lives on about $2.00 a day. Capitalism is EVIL. So long as we get our designer shit at lower prices, it doesn't matter that the person who made it lives in slavery to our corporate masters. We wouldn't treat dogs like that, yet we turn our eyes away from the plight of billions of people who are the victims of capitalism gone mad.
We are being played like violins by the spin masters who control our lives. They use a great variety of tricks to stop us from seeing what they are really doing. The drug war, the latest pandemic that's going to kill us all, celebrity worship, fear mongering, railing against countries that could not possibly harm us, etc.
Many people are waking up and seeing how badly we're getting fucked by those who we trust to care for us. Unfortunately, it's a tiny minority and the spin doctors have been able to marginalize us. We are the ones who are insane they say. There's a quote at the beginning of Zeitgeist Addendum that says: "it's no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society". That's absolutely true. We have to be insane to be able to look around at the rampant poverty, misery and suffering that is normal in our world and not be moved to tears by it. Every single day, over 30,000 children die of disease, hunger, war, or just neglect. EVERY SINGLE DAY!!!!!! Yet, we are focused on the pablum that is force fed us by the complicit media. Britney or Tom or Anna Nicole is more important than those dying children. Dancing With The Stars is more important than a mother having to decide which child to feed because there's only enough for one. American Idol is more important than the billions who live in hellhole slums, packed into sardine cans with no hope of ever getting out.
The religions that we turn to in hopes of getting some respite from the hell that we live in, are complicit in the rampant greed that characterizes our world. If anything, they are worse at it than our corporate masters. Most corporations don't care about us and make it plain by their actions. Religions on the other hand would have us believe that this world doesn't matter, it's the afterlife that we really need to be focused on, oh, and by the way, we need money. We can't do our good works unless you give us more and more money. Don't be concerned with what's going on in the slums, your immortal soul is going to roast in hell if you don't give us more money. We have to spread the word and we need more money. God told Oral Roberts that he'd kill him if we didn't send him some money right away. We fall for it every time though. Religions have been put before us as just another way to control us and focus our energy on, so we wont look around and see the world as it really is.
Religion and belief in a personal god is a mental disease!
Religion will be the downfall of Humanity.
...one of the first things I noticed was that most people are dangerously overweight. Soon after, I realized that a huge portion of TV advertising is for big pharma.
That didn't sit right with me.
Two weeks ago, I sat in a room with the CEO of TRICARE North and he told us all something that left me slack-jawed.
In the late 90s, free healthcare was rated as the 17th most popular reason for joining the uniformed services.
In 2009, free healthcare is the 2nd most popular reason given for joining the military.
On one hand, I am very proud that our military does so much to take care of their own but the fact that free healthcare is almost as popular as "wanting to serve my country" as a career deciding factor really shames me.
Is there anything george bush didn't break?
"Better." It's what we should ask of ourselves and of our leaders.
... a sweat?
Well spoken.
"Better." It's what we should ask of ourselves and of our leaders.
He's just such an easy target.
Thank goodness for Sarah!
That's not fair. He broke a sweat numerous time while riding his bicycle and playing on his farm.
Hopefully humanity will one day learn to be humane.
I wish I could live in the America these people do where this stuff is a surprise.
Hopefully humanity will one day learn to be humane.
I was thinking the exact same thing. It must be nice to be at the top where it is a surprise to see people suffering. And they wonder why poor people hate the wealthy so much.
MSNBC is covering this. Where's CNN? ABC?
Fox News? *laughs heartily*
NOBODY 2012
I watched this segment last night and they stated that Senator Landrieux was informed of the Free Clinic on Saturday and was invited on Countdown to be interviewed about what she saw. Her office said her schedule didn't permit her to do either. I can completely understand her not wanting to go on Countdown. I seriously want to know what was so important that she could miss witnessing a Free Clinic providing healthcare to the neediest people of her state? She didn't have to be there the entire day but an hour or two couldn't possibly have hurt her. She's a sorry excuse for a Democratic Senator. I wonder how many other conservadems are going to have more pressing matters the days the Free Clinics set up shop in their states.
With all due respect, get off your ass.
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