Free Health Clinic Lures Hundreds in L.A.

(CBS)  People from all around Los Angeles have been lining up around the clock since Monday - waiting, hoping to get free medical care as CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker reports.

Some 1,500 people a day - many working poor, almost all with little or no health insurance - file into L.A.'s cavernous Forum to see hundreds of doctors, dentists, and optometrists. All of these medical professionals are volunteers. All of these people are in need.

Larry Durst's disability check won't cover the glasses he needs. He says without this clinic he would suffer and go without.

Kenya Smith needs a checkup for two-week-old Zoe. Her insurance doesn't cover it.

"They wanted $1,500 for just to be seen by the doctor plus co-payments. That was a lot of money I thought," she said.

Anna Garcia got in line Tuesday for dental work. She works for Orange County, has five children, and her husband is out of work. The co-pay for three year old Aizza's root canal: $1,000.

"I couldn't afford it and I didn't want her to lose her teeth. So I once read about this program, and I had to take advantage of it, even if it meant missing a couple of days of work," she said.

The program is run by Remote Area Medical, a non-profit group established 24 years ago to take modern medicine to the third world. Today they do some 40 multi-day free clinics a year - 65 percent of them now in the U.S.

"There are about 49 million people who don't have access to the care they need. They simply can't afford it," says Stan Brock, founder of Remote Area Medical.

Family physician Natalie Nevins has worked in villages in India and Africa and says there's as much need here, as in remote areas of India.

"Most of these people work. They have jobs," she says. "But they work for small companies who can't afford to give them insurance. Or they work three or four part time jobs so they don't qualify for health insurance."

For doctors and patients here the shouting over health care reform is incomprehensible.

Sutina Green works for the city of Long Beach. She could be speaking for every patient here, saying, "I have five children and I'm a single mother. For me, this was a blessing."

[amc36]

Non-profit and volunteers...yea someone pays but maybe it's them. They want and love to do what they do. Anyone that needs help shouldn't be denied care. Also, the supplies and tests don't originally cost that much or shouldn't cost that much. Everyone should know that we are very much over charged for care. Also, a lot of health care workers make way more than they should need to live on. That's the reason noone can afford it and hospital bills go unpaid. That's why we have that debt. I think it's awesome that the free clinics do what they do. We need people like that. Many kudos to the doctors who are willing to volunteer. You will get your payoff in the end.

[chrysanthemum128]

"You're of hysterectomy age and you needed to finance $900 for a dental procedure? I'm sure this was done on either a credit card or with some third party plan from a brochure at your dentist office. Don't you understand that you are the exact type of person this reform would benefit?

Honestly, I don't understand the mentality of people who lay down in front of the corporate steamroller and think they are great patriots for doing so. "

No I don't have my hand out to grab forwhatever the government will give me because I understand that the more the government gives to me, the more they will take away from me. The government doesn't become "Big Daddy" and take care of all your needs without 1) Raising your taxes so high you can't support yourself anymore and 2) Taking all your rights away.
It's like when you're a kid and living with Mom and Dad - they take care of you but they run your life.
I know none of you Obama supporters care but in case there is one of you out there with an open mind, you ought to look into the history of Communism - the ideals it was based on (including the hatred of the rich which so many of you Democrats express). But the "solution" was far more damaging to the working classes than even the the unjust governments that preceded them. the workers ended up standing in line for bread, shopping at stores with hardly anything on the shelves, and in Stalin's Russia and China's numerous multi-year economic plans, actually starving to death in great numbers. They also disappeared or got shot if they dared to complain or criticize the government.
You make a big mistake when you trust government. Do you think the bureaucrats and elites (including Obama) really care about you? Do you think when you have your pitiful rationed health care and your skyrocketed cancer death rates that Obama and the Congress will have to put up with the same type of health care?

[chrysanthemum128]

"No, not kidding. It is not uncommon among the poor to go without preventive dental care (you know, those every six months visits?) and as a result have severe decay problems which, if left untreated, can result in loss of teeth, bone structure - more problems down the road - and infection, all of wich ending up costing far more than prevention. "

IT IS NOT UNCOMMON among the middle class to go without dental care because it is costly! What dreamland are you living in that you think everybody with insurance gets their teeth checked every six months? As far as your every six month checkups, I have insurance but I don't go every six months! Neither would my insurance pay for it. And even if it does - every six months is not necessary! My kids have gone like once every two or three years and their teeth are near perfect. Maybe because I watched what they ate, didn't ignore them and let them pig out on sweets and made sure they brushed their teeth. Your problem is you don't think you should have to pay for any of your own costs of everyday life! Why do you work? Or DO you work?

As far as root canals for three year olds - one of the few things that would cause such a young child's teeth to rot to the nerve would be letting her constantly have a baby bottle with soda or fruit juice in it!

[MPHgrad]

myfreedom

Please google this organization. Two years ago, they were in Knoxville, TN doing the same thing, long before this debate became so heated. It was not a political ploy and even then, people NEEDED the care.

[AK-47_Justice]

Just because they don't live with you and the southern, white, evangelical whackos known as the republican't minority, there is no reason for you to diss them.

Actually, if you were more literate and left the knee-jerk responses out, you would have read that this group does 40 free clinics per year all around the country, and the last one I saw on '60 Minutes' was in the deep RED south, and pictured many southern, white trash that cotinue to vote against their best interests for republican'ts.

[AK-47_Justice]

As U.S. health row rages, many seek care in Mexico

NACO, Mexico (Reuters) ? Retired police officer Bob Ritz has health insurance that covers his medical and dental care in the United States.

But every few months he drives from his home in Tombstone, Arizona, to this small town in northern Mexico to avoid the healthcare costs that aren't paid by insurance.

"I pay $400 a month for my health insurance, and it's still cheaper to come to Mexico," says Ritz, 60, as he stood outside a sun-bleached pharmacy in Naco, a few hours drive southeast of Phoenix.

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These Mexico trips and free clinics meant to serve the 3rd world should not be happening in a country that already spends $2.5 Trillion or 18% of GDP on an antiquated health care debacle!

[AK-47_Justice]

Thanks for the usual knee-jerk response highlighting 3 Dems, when ALL our congresscritters are on the same socialized government-paid system, that ALL Americans should have in a single-payer UHC system that the rest of the industrialized world has, at half the $2.5 Trillion or 18% GDP cost we already pay!

Do you actually 'think' that grassley, mcconnel, boener, etc...pay anything for their top-flight health care? We all deserve the same, if us taxpayers are paying for their health care!

[lovegetpeace]

Folks,

Welcome to the 3rd World country. For the KKK, Conservatives, Confederates, Evangelicals and Republicans, this does not exist. While for the rest of Americans, this is real live in color for some times now!

As long as the cost of Private Health Insurance keep going thru the Roof, more and more of these free events will take place near your town!

[AK-47_Justice]

Actually, since we already spend $2.5 Trillion or 18% of GDP per year, this cesspool of waste and abuse with higher and higher profits, is completely unaffordable and unsustainable for much longer!

[AK-47_Justice]

by the_majesty
This is what the Obama Zombies want.
FREE medical care.
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hungry1968-16
Correction: This is what the "for profit" health care system has forced a major portion of our society to do - visit traveling health care clinics designed to be operating in third world countries.

And if they don't, then they don't get ANY health care.
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Or, maybe visit Mexico for affordable health care......


As U.S. health row rages, many seek care in Mexico

While the bitter row continues to rage at town hall meetings across the United States, signs of the U.S. system's failings are visible in Mexican border cities, where cut-price pharmacies, dental clinics and doctors' surgeries vie for business from Americans who can't afford treatment at home.



This is absolute insanity in a country that already spends $2.5 Trillion per year (18% GDP) on a system better seen as a cesspool of waste and abuse, where the middle class Americans are screwed by the for-profit insurance companies every day!

[AK-47_Justice]

Non-profit Group Established to Aid Third World Now Does 65% of Free Clinics in the U.S.
**********************

As U.S. health row rages, many seek care in Mexico

NACO, Mexico (Reuters) ? Retired police officer Bob Ritz has health insurance that covers his medical and dental care in the United States.

But every few months he drives from his home in Tombstone, Arizona, to this small town in northern Mexico to avoid the healthcare costs that aren't paid by insurance.

"I pay $400 a month for my health insurance, and it's still cheaper to come to Mexico," says Ritz, 60, as he stood outside a sun-bleached pharmacy in Naco, a few hours drive southeast of Phoenix.

**********************************


So this is what health care in America has become.....either travel to Mexico for affordable health care or attend a free clinic with thousands of others meant to serve the 3rd world, because the far-right fringe groups of the republican't party are solidly behind the lobbyists of the for-profit insurance companies wanting to see their profits soar even higher than the current 500% since 2000.

For crissakes, we already spend $2.5 Trillion per year for the cesspool of waste and abuse known as American for-profit health care, more than double the rest of the industrialized world, yet we still have 50 million UN-insured and many more UNDER-insured, since these GREEDY for-profit insurance companies put higher profits well ahead of patient's needs and well-being!

This is a total sickness by the vast MINORITY in America, blocking true health care reform just for the almighty American dollar!

[Hosheen]

No point in arguing this. The people opposed are so anti-anything the current administration plan as to be blind to facts and logic. Perhaps they lack the native intelligence to see that in health care the USA is far, far behind the rest of the developed world, like Brazil, Canada, Argentina, and even Cuba.

It's one of the great shames of America that so many are too ignorant to see this and don't even try to understand what's needed.

Instead, they toss out scare tactic lies like "Socialized Medicine" and "euthanasia" without having the faintest idea what either of them are or if they are part of any health care plan. Unfortunately, there is no medical cure for stupidity.

[AK-47_Justice]

Yep....the vast majority of Americans see the need for true health care reform from our completely broken system, and it's only the far-right fringe groups like the moronic republican't trolls here, that continue to push the LIES and DECEPTIONS by the for-profit insurance companies!