100,000 Show Up for Free Health Clinic Event

Posted by Digby, Hullabaloo at 5:00 AM on August 12, 2009.

See, it's all good:
 

Hundreds of people were already lining up to receive free health care checks at the the Forum in Inglewood.

Volunteer doctors, dentists and optometrists will conduct free health clinic for uninsured and under-insured individuals.

The eight-day healthcare event will run from 5:30 a.m to 6 p.m. and is sponsored by Remote Area Medical, a charity that in the past has staged clinics in rural sections of the United States.

People started arriving before 3. Many said they didn't have health insurance and saw this as an opportunity to be checked out. Organizers placed them in stadium seats outside the Forum, and some said they waited for hours to get medical treatment.

Since 1985, about 400,000 adults and children have been treated by the organization, its leaders said. Individuals will not be required to show proof of income or insurance or documentation of any kind for treatment, according to organizers.

This is the same group that does the rural health care program that

radicalized

former insurance flack Wendell Potter. They work in major urban areas as well. If things don't change, in a couple of years they'll be needed in the suburbs as well.

If the uninsured want health care they can (probably) get it by staying up all night and waiting in the street outside a sports stadium once a year. What's the problem?

Update: I just heard on TV that they think nearly 100,000 people showed up for this event. I don't know if that's true, but the crowd was much more vast that the above report indicates. Of course, there are three million uninsured in LA, so that's really just a drop in the bucket.

Tagged as: insurance, health care, health reform

Digby is the proprietor of Hullabaloo.