U.S. Health Care Gets Boost From Charity

"60 Minutes": Remote Area Medical Finds It's Needed In America To Plug Health Insurance Gap

(CBS)  This was RAM's 524th expedition. RAM took off in 1992, airlifting relief to Latin America. And at age 72, Stan Brock still flies the antique fleet. One of their planes, a C-47, flew on D-Day.

Brock is British by birth, and an adventurer at heart. He was a cowboy in the Amazon and then, incredibly, he was discovered by TV's "Wild Kingdom." Brock was a star - sort of a naturalist daredevil - for the program in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Today Brock is devoted to RAM - completely devoted. He has no family, takes no salary, and has no home. Brock lives in an abandoned school that the city of Knoxville leases to RAM for $1. Until recently, he took showers in the courtyard with a hose.

How does he pay for all the care and supplies?

"In the first place we really know how to stretch the dollar. We operate entirely on the generosity of the American people. I'd like to say that we had big corporate support in America but we don’t. So it’s the little checks from those people who send in the $5 and $10," Brock explained.

RAM operates on a shoestring budget of about $250,000 a year. Yet, last year, it treated 17,000 patients. On the Saturday 60 Minutes stopped by, there was no sign of a let up.

"What have you accomplished today?" Pelley asked.

"Approximately 600 people actually showed up here and we were able to do just about everybody I think we turned away about 15 people who are going to come back tomorrow anyway," Brock said.

The next day, Sunday, there were hundreds more. Tickets started again with number one. But now, the doctors were racing time. In hours they'd be heading home.

Nurse practitioner Teresa Gardner, who brought in a portable women’s health clinic from Wise, Va., was worried about Rebecca McWilliams. McWilliams had surgery for cervical cancer in 2005, but without the recommended follow up.

"It's been two, about two years since I've had my last pap smear and I was supposed to have every six months and I’ve only had it once since that surgery," McWilliams told Pelley.

"I think many doctors would say you've taken a terrible risk waiting this long," Pelley remarked.

"I've really have. But it's just, like I said, it's very hard to afford it. I have three kids. And my husband lost his job this past summer," McWilliams, 28, explained.

McWilliams' pap smear came back clear, but in her exam Gardner found reason to worry. "I think just from the clinical inspection of the cervix that, you know, possibly, there is a possibility that cancer, you know, still being there," Gardner explained.

[mt1878]

This story was so bogus. Sure there are people without healthcare, however many choose to not pay for it.

Take the truck driver in the story, a family of five with health insurance, his problem was an infected tooth and he complained that he has a $500 deductable.

First any discount Dentist will pull a tooth for $100. Second a $500 deductable represents less than $10 a week. This guy with a good job and health insurance can''t budget $10 a week??? But he can drive 200 miles back and forth to get free health care. My calculation of the gas cost is $80 alone for the gas for this trip assuming a 20mpg vehicle. It probably was not, it probably was an SUV. Did he stop for Starbucks on the way, and do the three kids have cell phones?????????

I could go on, such as the woman with bad eyes who drove 100 miles each way t get free glasses when she could go to WalMart, Costco, or BJ''s and get discount glasses for slightly more than the $40 in gas she spent.

But the real issue here is the Doom and Gloom that CBS 60 minutes spews at every oppotunity. Seems like Dan Rather never left...........

[ben916]

The entire segment make me appreciate that I have excellent healthcare and dental care.
At the same time, it angered me that there are illegals, specifically Mexicans, that cross the US border, have their kids in the US and then suck/sap/leach away at medical/dental resources that are entitled to taxpaying LEGAL American citizens.
These are the same people that are "picking the food that US workers will not perform".
They don''t pay a dime or centavo to the US for this free care and then we get screwed on picking up the bill.
We don''t see the Canadians rushing into the US for free healthcare? Why? Because CA, AZ, NM and TX "tolerate" this behavior.
It is no wonder that the segment highlighted the healthcare shortcomings of the USA.
Once again, the middle class takes it in the shorts...

[dmchugh70]

Medical program and my heart went out to the people on the show. It seems so wrong that our country abandons many of its people in need. Stop by our web site "The Healthcare Coverage Post" for more updates on the RAM program (www.healthcoveragepost.com)

[ashlove3]

I find myself in the same sitution as these folks. I recently had to cancell my health insurance because I needed the money to pay for the higher cost of everything else. I pray that I don''t get sick and if I would get sick I pray that GOD takes me quick so I don''t have the hopsital bills to worry about. As a 50 yr. old single female the thought of becoming sick scares the heck out of me. Why can''t our goverment who we put in office think of the American taxpayers first instead of rest of the world first. As others have said we need to take care of the American people instead of the rest of the world. We are becoming a third world country. Is this a way to control the American people? Keep us poor and unhealth. Micheal Moore did and interesting movie called Sicko which makes you think.People have said no to Universal Health care like they have in Canada and Europe because the feel the care will be poor. Watch this movie it will open your eyes. I don''t think it would be as bad as you think. I wouldn''t mind paying for this.Having insurance I still couldn''t offer to go to the doctor. I would rather take that and put the money to health care for all at least I wouldn''t feel I was wasting the money coming out of my check and nothing being paid any way. But the health industry and the insurance companies don''t want it to happen because they won''t make much money.

[marshall0621]

Am I missing something here ? What about Medicaid ? Of course not all, but many, even most, of the working poor should qualify for Medicaid. Yes, I know not all Medicaid plans in all states carry dental - or other specific services. But, I hate to hear some say that this country is not taking care of it''s own, or doing anything about health care, when our tax dollars ARE doing something - it''s called Medicaid - as well as the individual state''s SCHIP plans for children and/or familes that have too much income for Medicaid.

[noblesteresa]

The entire segment broke my heart. There are so many people in the same boat as the people being treated by RAM. The real tear jerker was the lady having her eyes examed with her comment "We live in the riches country in the world, and can''t have health care for all" How much is being spent on the war each and every day??? Can''t anyone in Washington see that there is something wrong with this picture??? When on earth is America going to take care of AMERICA??

[f12944]

I think that you missed the big story about our lack of health care. I would really like to have known how many of those people without insurance plan on voting for politians that will try to change our current health care system. The people that I know that don''t have insurance still vote republican! That is truly amazing to me.

[bamablue20]

I am also caught up in the Health Care Provider Non Payment. I have a problem with Verdigo, have been diagnoised with Verdigo, but I need an MRI, the town I live in can give me this MRI, but it will cost me $1000.00 out of my purse, the insurance company pays $50.00. So I have been waiting for a decision from the Insurance company (I Med Health/ IAB). At this point I have not been able to have the MRI because of the out of pocket cost, therefore the Specialist that I am dealing with can not diagnois me properly.
I pay for this insurance and then the insurance company wants to tell me where I can go to have this MRI done. Is this the American way? You pay for this insurance and then they want you to wait until
the insurance company gives you the okey to go have the medical problem evaluated. At this time it has been 3 weeks since I had the severe episode of Vertigo. I need the MRI so the Physician can properly diagnois the problem.

[dentonclan]

This story only touches the surface. Even for those fully insured, the system finds ways to weed out those with chronic illnesses. Our son has continual headaches from lyme disease. Unfortunately, he was misdiagnosed and treated for migraine for six years before we finally gave up on neurologists and tried an "alternative" doctor, who promptly diagnosed him with lyme and other coinfections. We were astonished to find that "chronic lyme disease" is not recognized by the Infectious Disease Society of America and the CDC. The CDC holds to the position that lyme disease is readily curable with four weeks of antibiotics; yet, any lyme patient who has had the disease for any length of time will tell you this is not the case. The CDC position means that most physicians either will not treat lyme or will show you the door if you are not cured after four weeks of antibiotics. Physicians willing to treat patients with long-term antibiotic therapy risk losing their licenses. Insurance companies, of course, will not cover treatment protocols that do not follow CDC guidelines. Many families paying out-of-pocket to get treatment are slowly bankrupting themselves. Lyme is a national epidemic, and anyone who spends any time outdoors is susceptible. We need funding for research, but we particularly need the press to examine the controversy, and particularly the CDC, so that guidelines can be updated and doctors will be free to treat the disease as it should be treated.

[curiuos7]

The 60 minutes report on healthcare is a very accurate portrayal of the the demise of health care in America. Only those with good paying jobs get it, and only until they have a serious illness and the health insurers decide to kick them out for profits. This could change if a serious look was taken at how to fund these people. If we keep the population healthy like other countries do then we will have more productive people who will try to stay out of hospitals. The young woman who did not follow up on her cancer did not do for one main reason, she could not afford to be tested and was not offered any backup plan. Testing can cost thousands of dollars to locate cancer, yet people with it are considered unfavorable by insurance companies. No one wants to be sick but people put off going to the doctor because of the high cost of doing it and the fear of finding a serious illness that they cannot afford. Unless there is a new approach to health care in this country and that is to keep people healthy by creating a sane health business plan that covers costs and does not penalize people who want to improve their health. It is also too diverse and complicated . No one seems to understand it and what their money really pays for in health insurance plans. It is time to change all of that before a full blown health crisis erupts. And thanks to RAM for having the intelligence to recognize the problem.

So, I am the 473rd person to make a comment.....must have struck a nerve ''eh? I say play this show every night for the rest of the year. As I was watching and trying not to cry, I couldn''t help but wonder if any of the Washington elite, who are so very sure that if there were nationwide medical care for all of us, it would immediately send us into such a socialistic tailspin, that we would all wake up tomorrow in a communist state!

I was wondering if any of them were watching, feeling anything, caring even a little bit? No. Shame on them, bravo to you. You deserve many kudos for this program segment, and I applaud you...I am somewhat pleased and surprised to hear myself saying that to the media, but I appreciate your revealing of the distress that we are suffering out here in health-care no-mans-land.

I just hope somebody besides we low-income, working poor, senior citizens etc. actually heard what you had to tell. Thank you for at least a few moments of truth, and bravo to the earlier commenter who made the point that it sucks to be forced to obtain care from the capitalist money-mongers who peddle shoddy medical services for higher and higer prices, by the elite who receive their care from the fed and never even blink an eye to the absurdity and hypocrisy of the situation.....I have diagnosed the situation as ITS....Ivory Tower Syndrome. I fear there may not be a cure.

[kdf_worf]

After watching this, I donated what I could to RAM, but still feel that we need a administration which is FOR the people, instead of being FOR the big business, FOR GREED, FOR THE RICH---in other words, NOTHING will change until we get the Fascists out of the Oval Office and into jail, where they belong! The American people deserve what the Constitution promises, not empty threats, moral outrage, nor illegal spying. We need Medical care, a strong economy, and jobs which will help us to take care of our own, NOT jobs being shipped over to China with the blessing of the White House, NOT people just giving lip service to the needs of others, and definately NOT the present administration AT ALL!

[u004sah]

It is a shame that we are no better than a third world country when it comes to taking care of the medical needs of hard working Americans. We spend BILLIONS of dollars aiding other countries who would just as well spit in our face than say thank you.Spend the money here first! I thank God for those people who volunteered to help our own country men. They are American patriots.

[u004sah]

It is a shame that we are no better than a third world country when it comes to taking care of the medical needs of hard working Americans. We spend BILLIONS of dollars aiding other countries who would just as well spit in our face than say thank you.Spend the money hear first! I thank God for those people who volunteered to help our own country men. They are American patriots.

[kdf_worf]

This story speaks volumes about the state of how this country is; we can spend BILLIONS on war, BILLIONS on other countries, and BILLIONS to bail out Oil companies, but not on the health and welfare of the citizens of this country! It is unfortunate that many who are without voted for this administration to continue taking the country into the toilet, but so be it......you get the political body that you deserve, as the saying goes, but we didn''t deserve a Fascist government where spying on citizens is more important than taking care of them.

[kdf_worf]

speaks volumes....

[jackobellis]

I THINK IT IS A GREAT IDEA ABOUT FREE HEALTH CARE. PEOPLE SHOULD BE ABLE TO GIVE A DONATION OF SOMETHING IN ORDER TO HELP OUT. THE GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO STOP HELPING IN OTHER COUNTRIES . TAKE CARE OF THERE OWN PEOPLE. ESPECIALLY THE OLDER PEOPLE , DISABLED AND THOES WHO REALLY CANT AFFORD ANY INSURANCE

[z9933252578]

It would be much easier to sympothize with the people needing help if they were not driving $20,000 plus vechicles such as the Tankersleys. Most people put more into their vehicles than their health care. I have no sympathy for them. There is a great need for health care reform, but if it had been up to me, the Tankerleys would have been turned away for people who are really poor. I think Stan Brock, the founder of RAM, lives more frugally than most who came for help.

[keely_stansbury]

at least we are losers who can spell

[sidvicious42]

"I found yer piece on ram blah blah blah blah.." Shutup.