At a huge free medical clinic in Southwest Virginia, misery that shouldn’t exist

[mahatmakanejeeves]

I hadn't been in Terry McAuliffe's fan club, but he's light years beyond what had been the alternative. I'm beginning to warm up to him a little.

At a huge free medical clinic in Southwest Virginia, misery that shouldn’t exist

By Petula Dvorak Columnist July 18 at 8:42 PM

A gravel parking lot deep in the green hills of Virginia coal country was packed to capacity by 4 a.m. Friday. More than 1,500 people with canes, wheelchairs, oxygen tanks, bleeding gums, black lungs and other ills had come to the Wise County Fairgrounds, camping in tents, sleeping in pickup truck beds or scrunched up in their cars, hoping to see a doctor.

At midnight before the clinic opened, there were 1,204 people in line. And over the weekend, thousands more will come.

This is what health care looks like for many of the folks in this corner of southwest Virginia. And it will keep looking like this, thanks to state lawmakers who could have helped their most desperate constituents but instead blocked, bickered and weaseled until Virginia forfeited billions in Medicaid expansion funds. The result: More than 400,000 people who would have qualified for Medicaid coverage will continue to go uninsured.

This was hard for some of the people gathered here to stomach. They wish they could afford to go to a real doctor’s office to get their blood checked or their rashes examined rather than the cow stalls and tents of this free clinic. The Remote Area Medical clinic sets up here every year, with volunteers providing free dental, eye and medical care to those in need.

After registering, Gary Mudei of Mt. Carmel, VA struggles to get to the dental area as he was hoping to get some work on his damaged teeth. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)

Fertile ground for Medicaid pitch

By Laura Vozzella July 18 at 10:06 PM 

WISE, Va. — Gov. Terry McAuliffe renewed his pitch for expanding health care to the poor Friday by touring a field hospital set up at a county fairgrounds, where people had camped out for days for the chance to see a dentist or doctor.
....

The free clinic springs up at the Wise County Fairgrounds every year. Stan Brock, founder of Remote Area Medical Volunteer Corps, began offering medical services in Third World countries 30 years ago but today focuses on poor parts of America, including this scenic but economically depressed swath of Appalachian coal country.
....

McAuliffe spoke to about 100 people in a tent waiting to see a dentist. Gilda Mountcastle, who’d been waiting for care since 5:30 a.m. Thursday, called out from the back of the crowd to say she would not have access to a dentist or eye doctor without the clinic.

But she told a reporter afterward that she did not support Medicaid expansion, which she saw as a government handout. ... “We’re hardworking, hillbilly mountain people,” she said. “We’re too proud to beg and bum.”

Virginia governor pitches Medicaid expansion in visit to RAM Clinic

Posted: Friday, July 18, 2014 10:15 pm | Updated: 1:24 am, Sat Jul 19, 2014.

ALLIE ROBINSON GIBSON | BRISTOL HERALD COURIER

WISE, Va. — Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s frustration at the lack of Medicaid expansion in Virginia was apparent Friday as he walked the grounds of the Wise County Fairgrounds, talking to people who turn out to get free health care once a year.

McAuliffe, Attorney General Mark Herring and Secretary of Health and Human Resources Bill Hazel visited the Remote Area Medical Clinic in Wise, talking to patients and providers about the obstacles faced in getting health care to some of the neediest in the state.

“You cannot walk around here and see all these folks and not understand they need help,” McAuliffe said. “They need health care. It is time for us to do the right thing and close the coverage gap.”

Earl Neikirk

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (center) talks to the media during the Remote Area Medical Clinic in Wise, Virginia, on Friday. Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring (left), Teresa Gardner executive director of the Health Wagon (right) is the local agency that spearheads the Wise County event each year and Stan Brock is a British philanthropist who founded the charity, in back.

[WhiteTara]

1. “We’re too proud to beg and bum.”

Standing in line for a couple of days doesn't qualify as begging? This poor woman has been completely brainwashed.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. An observation that was made by one of the commenters to the WaPo article:

barkingdogs 11:29 AM EDT

No doubt this has been mentioned in a prior comment, but Mrs. Mountcastle, a hardworking mountain person, by attending the RAM event, is in fact, begging and bumming for a once a year medical appointment. Heaven forbid, she should have to endure regular medical care that would, in all probability, make her live longer and healthier, she has her pride after all!

[WhiteTara]

3. I wonder how many guns in her household

because that is what many of people hold dear.

[elleng]

4. I'm with you, on McAuliffe.

AMAZING what repugs have done to the 'Commonwealth.'