I’ve heard that phrase used to describe the damage done to our society by the failure to construct a fair and effective health care system.
As I visit patients this weekend, everyone has the TV on. I see the crowds in Los Angeles lining up to recieve medical care. It reminds me of the disaster of 2005, but this storm is ongoing.
LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Remote Area Medical (RAM), the global non-profit that has turned the L.A. Forum into the nation’s largest healthcare event, has experienced high levels of demand for services during the first two days, August 11 and August 12.
Each day, volunteer doctors, dentists, optometrists, and other medical professionals have provided approximately 1,500 patient services, at a medical value of over $200,000 a day. Patients, many of them uninsured or underinsured, have been lining up for hours, hoping to gain entry. Many have been turned away.
The charitable organization, Remote Area Medical, normally serves people in distant villages overseas and rural parts of the US. What does it say about us that RAM is delivering disaster care on a quiet weekend in LA?
The problem with depending on this kind of clinic, as admirable as the volunteer effort is, is that there is not adequate follow-up. The clinic can help people with immediate needs, and give referrals, but often it opens a can of worms.
The patients need diagnostic tests, more doctor’s visits and treatment to care for problems revealed by screening.
I speak from experience. There’s no lack of good-hearted medical workers who give volunteer service to help their fellow citizens, but it’s not enough. When the RAM clinic is done there needs to be continuity and security for the patients.
Kmareka.com 
I’ve seen videos of this. I was shocked. Surely there is something that stinks to high heaven with this state of affairs. Can it be that the American citizenry may truly do nothing about it?
Part of the problem is the lack of vision and daring in the Democratic party that started off with such a compromised health care plan that noone could easily explain instead of national health insurance that works everywhere else. In spite of their deal with insurance and drug companies they got accused of “socialism” anyway, they might as well have gone for the real thing.