Free Clinic

WISE, VA: A pregnant woman’s water broke as she awaited free dental care at the Wise County, VA fairgrounds on Saturday. She had stood in line in hot and muggy weather with over a thousand others to get a numbered ticket at the 12th annual Remote Area Medical (RAM) Health Expedition. According to RAM staffer, Jean Jolly, she didn’t want to leave and lose her place in line.

An ambulance standing by eventually took her to town in time to have her child in a hospital instead of an animal stall. The child might have been the first ever born at a RAM free clinic. But not without a number, joked one of RAM’s 1,700 volunteers.

Far from Washington’s "debt crisis" abstractions is another crisis, an American reality one cannot describe in words nor experience secondhand.

Have you ever noticed how the Health Care Safety Nets such as "Free" Clinics, Medicaid, Medicare, and other such programs are touted as a "Safety Net" to "Prevent people from going without health care" and to "assist citizens in local communities"? I have seen these programs touted by government officials and some government employees as a safety catch-all that will supposedly help everyone. They receive commendations for their innovation and serving the citizens that can't afford to pay for health care. They are great things, really, they provide a service to SOME of the citizenry and they fulfill a need for a portion of the population. So I am not really speaking ill of them because they are a good thing. My beef is with those who tout them as a complete "safety net" without understanding that they only serve a small portion of a population.