U.S. Health Care Gets Boost From Charity

[RedEarth]

CBS) This segment was originally broadcast on March 2, 2008. It was updated on July 9, 2008.

One of the decisive issues in the presidential campaign is likely to be health care. Some 47 million Americans have no health insurance, and that's just the start: millions more are underinsured, unable to pay their deductibles or get access to dental care.

Recently, 60 Minutes heard about an American relief organization that airdrops doctors and medicine into the jungles of the Amazon. It's called Remote Area Medical, or "RAM" for short.

As correspondent Scott Pelley first reported last March, Remote Area Medical sets up emergency clinics where the needs are greatest. But these days that's not the Amazon. This charity founded to help people who can't reach medical care finds itself throwing America a lifeline.

In a matter of hours, Remote Area Medical set up its massive clinic, for a weekend, in an exhibit hall in Knoxville, Tenn. Tools for dentists were laid out by the yard, optometrists prepared to make hundreds of pairs of glasses, general medical doctors set up for whatever might come though the door. Nearly everything is donated, and everyone is a volunteer. The care is free. But no one could say how many patients might show up.

The first clue came a little before midnight, when Stan Brock, the founder of Remote Area Medical, opened the gate outside. The clinic wouldn't open for seven hours, but people in pain didn't want to chance being left out. State guardsmen came in for crowd control. They handed out what would become precious slips of paper - numbered tickets to board what amounted to a medical lifeboat.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/28/60minutes/main3889496.shtml

To watch the RAM segment that appeared recently on the CBS NEWS television program 60 MINUTES please CLICK HERE .

http://www.ramusa.org/

[DesertFlower]

1. i saw it last night for the 2nd time.

just sent them a donation.

[area51]

2. RAM

I saw a report about this on the BBC America. Shows how we're a 3rd world nation that condemns people to die if they're not rich enough for treatment. Single-payer now.

[xchrom]

3. kick