Race to the Bottom
Mar 2nd, 2008 at 8:21 pm by Susie
No matter who wins this election, we know one thing: without true universal health care, these people will still be left behind (h/t Wampum):
(CBS) One of the decisive issues in the presidential campaign is likely to be health insurance. Texas and Ohio vote on Tuesday, and those states alone have nearly seven million uninsured residents; nationwide, 47 million have no health insurance. But that’s just the start: millions more are underinsured, unable to pay their deductibles or get access to dental care.
Recently, 60 Minutes heard about an American relief organization that airdrops doctors and medicine into the jungles of the Amazon. It’s called Remote Area Medical, or “RAM” for short.
As correspondent Scott Pelley reports, Remote Area Medical sets up emergency clinics where the needs are greatest. But these days, that’s not the Amazon. This charity founded to help people who can’t reach medical care finds itself throwing America a lifeline.
In a matter of hours, Remote Area Medical set up its massive clinic, for a weekend, in an exhibit hall in Knoxville, Tenn. Tools for dentists were laid out by the yard, optometrists prepared to make hundreds of pairs of glasses, general medical doctors set up for whatever might come though the door. Nearly everything is donated, and everyone is a volunteer. The care is free. But no one could say how many patients might show up.
The first clue came a little before midnight. Stan Brock, the founder of Remote Area Medical, opened the gate outside. The clinic wouldn’t open for seven hours, but people in pain didn’t want to chance being left out. State guardsmen came in for crowd control. They handed out what would become precious slips of paper - numbered tickets to board what amounted to a medical lifeboat.
It was 27 degrees. The young and the old would spend the night in their cars, running the engine for heat, but not much - not at $3 a gallon. At 5 a.m., Pelley took a walk through the parking lot.
“We got up at three o’clock this morning and we got here about four. We’ve been out where a little while it’s cold,” Margaret Walls, a hopeful patient from
Tennessee, told Pelley.
Americans have access to health care similar to the middle of the Amazon. Yet another thing to thank conservative ideology for.
[...] Race to the Bottom No matter who wins this election, we know one thing: without true universal health care, these people will still be left behind: (CBS) One of the decisive issues in the presidential campaign is likely to be health insurance. Texas and Ohio vote on Tuesday, and those states alone have nearly seven mi… [...]