Fertile ground for Medicaid pitch- The Washington Post

Remote Area Medical back in western Virginia, as the battle to expand Medicaid rolls on…

The three-day clinic, which relies on more than 1,000 volunteers, will serve as many as 3,000 people before it ends Sunday. The vast majority of patients — more than 70 percent — come for dental care, Brock said.

Every year, hundreds of people have every one of their teeth pulled there. Then they put their names into a denture lottery, with the hope of being picked to get a set of false teeth made for them at the next year’s event. Forty-six people were picked from a list of 700 to get dentures this year.

“They pull thousands of teeth here. At the end, they’ll have buckets of teeth,” said volunteer Jennifer Lee, Virginia’s deputy secretary of health and human resources and an emergency room doctor.

Medicaid expansion would not fully alleviate the dental situation. Medicaid does not cover routine dental care for adults or dentures. But Medicaid does pay for emergency tooth extractions, so patients would not have to wait a year to have a bad one pulled.

“I just had an 18-year-old have a full mouth extraction because she’s never had dental care,” said Beth Bortz, who runs the Virginia Center for Health Innovation. “It’s not unusual.”

She said patients often want their good teeth removed, too, because they associate teeth with pain. She said health-care providers counsel them to keep them.

- The Washington Post

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The Associated Press: Long lines as free health care offered in LA area

The Associated Press: Long lines as free health care offered in LA area:

The Los Angeles event marks the first time Remote Area Medical has provided such medical care in a major urban area. The medical group typically serves patients in rural parts of the United States and travels to underdeveloped countries.

The piercing sound of teeth being drilled and scraped echoed up to the rafters where the Los Angeles Lakers once played to the roar of capacity crowds. Mobile health trucks provided other medical examinations, and tables full of donated eyeglasses were available to those who had eye examinations done.

Since 2000, The Forum has been owned by Faithful Central Bible Church, which donated the use of the facility for a week. The medical professionals volunteered their time and covered their own liability. Cash and services were donated by local hospitals, health systems and charitable groups.

Tennessee-based RAM's founder Stan Brock said he helps organize 30 to 40 such health care events a year, with a total of 567 events held to date, adding: 'We just wish we could do more.'

'This need has existed in this country for decades and decades,' said Brock. 'The people coming here are here because they are in pain.'
The event came at a time when the national debate over President Barack Obama's health reform plan has boiled over at town hall meetings, with opponents sometimes shouting down Democratic members of Congress who favor the program.
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., told a cheering crowd of volunteers and medical professionals at The Forum that she would continue to advocate for health care reform because 'we can do a better job of providing health care to those who desperately need it.

Let's see, 567 events times maybe 500 people each, how many anecdotes is that?

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Panorama (BBC) Documentary on US Healthcare

The episode is entitled "What Now, Mr. President?" Sadly, there is probably nothing you didn't already know in here, but it is a good program to share with your friends who still beleive in the Best Healthcare in the World(TM) myth.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Has a section on RAM Medical, which "60 Minutes" covered last year, as well as a section on wealth disparity, health care lobbying, drug pricing, and a few striking anecdotes, if you like that sort of thing. (Getting chemo in a tent, begging for Tennessee Medicaid toive a liver transplant, and thousands seeking help at RAM.)

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Crooks and Liars » 60 Minutes: Charity Trying To Make Up For Failing U.S. Health Care System

Crooks and Liars » 60 Minutes: Charity Trying To Make Up For Failing U.S. Health Care System

"If you’re looking for a story that shows the abysmal state of health care in America, look no further. 60 Minutes traveled to Knoxville, TN to film a free clinic set up by a charity group called Remote Area Medical Volunteer Corps, or RAM. The charity was initially started in the 90’s by it’s founder, Stan Brock, former co-star of Wild Kingdom, to give health care relief to remote areas of Latin America, but after watching this segment it’s clear that America’s health care system doesn’t look too much different than that of a third world country."

The video of the 60 Minutes story is available for viewing at the C&L site and it is definitely worth watching, if only to count the thousands of anecdotes available for those who like that sort of thing.

In a related anecdote, a patient I saw today with (now) advanced lung cancer, who had this gem in his history and physical: "He developed severe, unremitting left sided chest pain beneath his clavicle and along his left anterior chest about 4 to 5 months ago. He did not seek medical attention due to lack of health insurance."

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