Little Rock Free Clinic Medical Director: “This is the average American, the average Arkansan” |
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| By: Eve (nyceve) Gittelson Friday November 27, 2009 4:34 pm | |
As a patient is removed by paramedics to a waiting ambulance, the clearly upset Medical Director of the Little Rock Free Health Clinic Dr. Kimberly Garner, describes the composition of the patients attending the November 21st, 2009 event. "This is our middle class, our average Arkansan. Our neighbors, our friends, our families, our co-workers who we’re seeing here."
As I often say, there but for the grace of God go I.
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35 Comments
Eve, you really collected some great interviews down there. Thanks.
Thanks for all your coverage of this Eve.
I grew up in small-town Midwest, where you knew everyone. Not that there was a super high level of caring for others in the community but where there were community standards and a sense of caring for other members of the community.
Today I live in a relatively small suburb masquerading as a small town in northwest Connecticut. It is a palce, if there is any, that defines what it is to be disconnected from one’s neighbors.
We have moved as a country from small towns to suburbs over the last 55 years or so.
This move has allowed presidents like Reagan, Bush I, Bush II, even Clinton and Obama, to preach successfully that your goal in life is to get what you can, and screw your neighbor. It’s subtler with Obama but still there.
What you see in Arkansas has been building for about 55 years. It’s good for bottom lines.
And what this all boils down to is this: When you hitch all healthcare in this country to employers and employers either can’t afford to offer it or employees can’t afford to pay for it even when it IS offered, then you have a system for the minority, not the majority. Until we decouple healthcare from employers benefit programs, we will not have a healthcare system that works effectively and efficiently for the country.
Blanche DuBois Lincoln doesn’t get it, doesn’t care get it and will never understand. Same goes for most of Congress, unfortunately.
Yup, she and Eric Cantor think “folks ought to go to the ER and depend on the kindness of strangers, just don’t look at me!”
Not that there was a super high level of caring for others in the community but where there were community standards and a sense of caring for other members of the community.
Not sure what you are saying. There was a not high level but a medium to low level of caring?
For middle class? What was the level of caring for the lowerpoorhomeless?
Eve: I’ve been aware of you for a little while, here at FDL, but I think that’s the first time I’ve seen you’re little face at the top.
Hello! Even though this is an internet site, with lots of anonimity, it’s still nice to put a name with a face.
Sad and stupid and expensive.
(Hey, demi! Liking the rain, finally???)
You ain’t seen nothing yet, headed to kansas City on december 9 and 10, to bring more of the shame of America to the attention of the world.
Hi demi, great to be here.
I’ve been here some time, now that I’m bringing the shame of America to the attention of the world, FDL (God bless Jane and this place!) is doing its best to highlight the collapse of our healthcare system.
I think I slept through it. Just got back last night from camping for three days. It was wet this morning, though, when I went to work at 7:00 am. *g*
Thanks for your work. The PTB are doing all they can to make sure these clinics get no publicity.
Indeedy. Needs to be said and done.
There was a certain blandness to the community.
In the public schools, everyone was equal in terms of grading and opportunity.
On the athletic courts and fields, effort and ability counted.
Dating separated haves from have-nots. Dating was complex. You might want someone at a higher economic level. You might even be as smart in some ways and even smarter in others.
But this is high school stuff. High schoolers cared for themselves only.
In high school, it didn’t matter whether you were rich, poor, or middle class, except in terms of your dating opportunities.
In the samll community at large, there was no discrimination, just a sense of you got what you earned and thereby deserved.
Gosh, Art, and you were never compelled to write a screen play? I’m just kidding. Some communities are more challenging than others.
Whatcha gonna do?
I should start hidden camera filming when I have to go to the ER (I break bones a lot). I can’t believe I didn’t start a while back. If it was just me getting completely screwed when desperately in need of medical attention it might be different, but everyone I ever speak to has similar experiences. Poor people are treated like dirt…
Good for bottom lines…and bottom feeders…like WalMart, and Tyson’s-both out of Arkansas.
Do it!
FWIW, I’ve got about a dozen half-written novels.
No great deal. Just incomplete bursts.
I’ve always thought it would be nice if I (we) could have a crew of little angel workers to follow though on those bursts.
Artists, and I’m not one, don’t want sympathy.
Thank you for these posts, Eve. One can only hope that staffers on the Hill and at the WH who read the Lake, and we know they’re out there, are not being silent about what they see.
It’s no longer business as usual, ladies and gentlemen of the Village. We’re comin’.
Oh, that wasn’t sympathy. It was something else.
*g*
I was told many things while in Arkansas.
1. WalMart owns the state.
2. Many call Ms. Lincoln, Plantation Blanche, wonder why?
And, we all have a whole ‘nother day until Monday. Yay!
Well, Arkansans need education. How to inform them?
Ms. Lincoln needs to be primaried.
emptywheel is upstairs…
Anthrax Attack Used to Justify the Iraq War
I fear that this is going to be increasingly the way that both the poor and middle-class will obtain health care in this country. Charity supported free clinics with some government grants; University run clinics for dentistry, vision, etc where medical students can learn their skills; OTC payments; more emergency rooms; and even some hopping across the border using “Medical Tourism”.
It’s clear to me that Blanche Lincoln hasn’t even looked into the reasons the tiny little health http://www.allhealth.org/publications/Private…/Co-Op_Toolkit_Master_–_91.pdf“> Arkansas River Valley Rural Health Cooperative failed. It was simply unsustainable without a significant dollop of Federal and State support…which Lincoln failed to effectively obtain. It never had an impact on reducing prices, and after about two or three years most of its membership had drifted back into standard insurance, or dropped insurance entirely. The co-op failed leaving the remaining members in the lurch.
While some Co-Ops, created in the early 1900′s as part of Union efforts, have survived…particularly in Minnesota, these have been protected by legislation that inhibited big insurers from driving them out, and still received Federal and State funding.
I’m anxious to see the turnout in my hometown KCMO. I have sent out a ‘call to action’ to several volunteer groups I belong to, hope they all show up to help. I myself am volunteering on Thursday 12.09 and actually getting to see a Dr. for the 1st time in over 5 years on Friday. I’m a bit intimidated because I’m afraid some of my clients will see me and automatically assume I’m indigent since I can no longer afford health insurance. I will absolutely shit my pants if they haul my ass out on a stretcher. I actually feel guilty in going because I am afraid I’m taking the spot from someone who needs it more than I do. Hope that’s not the case. KC has a great volunteer spirit, just hope the local media doesn’t paint the picture in surrealistic colors….
I have eventually come to understand that folks who have not been born into a family with medical troubles, haven’t watched their parents or loved ones die, or haven’t had a serious illness that made them look death in the eye just don’t get it, can’t see it, refuse to listen and will only squeal when the big wheel rolls over them.
Anyone lucky enough to stay clear of serious medical trouble has no idea what the current system does to America.
They actually believe that they are protected by insurance and their trusted insurance people will help them. They actually believe that the medical profession will pull them and their kids thru a minor amount of discomfort if things go bad.
WELL, THEY ARE WRONG!!!!!!
The truth is that the insurance company will “duck out the back!” The medical costs will cripple the family. The emotional stress will cause divorce. The children will, at a minimum, be scared for life. The community of survivors (I.E. Everyone living in the same community!)will be poorer because another productive, taxpaying, healthy, non-criminal family will be destroyed.
Thank God our two fathers died of sudden and massive heart attaches. Our moms were not so lucky. Each lived into their 90′s and suffered greatly in many ways. Medicare and insurance helped, but eventually their own estate paid the bills. And, in one case Blue Cross Blue Shield simply changed its definitions of what was covered and what wasn’t until a class action suit was eventually won at a knock down cost to BC/BS (and i repeat …BS!!!!)
How sad and shameful is our country? So, in order to apply for Medicaid u have to quit your job! I love and hate my country the same. :)
Excuse me, hate our country because of the way we treat our own. It’s so sad how stories like this gets ignored by the media, but a few ‘batshit’ crazy teabaggers can get attention...
This morning on Washington Journal they are discussing health care debate. Any one who attended that clinic in Arkansas up for calling in?
202-7370-0002. Independent number at their site