Free Clinic: "Hard to believe I was in America"

Capitalism is coming to an end, brought down by greed. Things cannot continue as they are at present. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and the middle class is disappearing. Those who see socialism as evil need to look at when our way of life began to come apart at the seams big time -- in the Reagan years of deregulation of corporations and huge tax benefits for the rich. The promised "trickle-down" theory never happened -- greed took over at the top, paving the way for the decline of America, to a point where socialism is being forced to take the place of capitalism. One in 6 kids in our country go hungry every day (see: http://uspoverty.change.org/blog/view/report_one_in_six_children_in_the_us_are_hungry). People can't afford health care--and the insurance companies, Big Pharma, Wall Street, and war-profiteering corporations are raking in the big bucks and doling out millions in bonuses to themselves. They are contributing to their own eventual demise due to rampant greed and selfishness. Out of necessity, goverment socialistic programs will have to be brought in to help those most in need. And so, as throughout recorded history, the roller-coaster cycle of social changes continues...

Rich Stockwell, senior producer at MSNBC's "Countdown", writes about his experiences at the free clinic funded by viewer contributions:

New Orleans, La. — - It happened as I watched a 50-something woman walk out, after spending several hours being attended to by volunteer doctors. "She's decided against treatment. A reasonable decision under the circumstances," the doctor tells us as she heads for the next patient. The president of the board of the National Association of Free Health Clinics tells me why: "It's stage four breast cancer, her body is filled with tumors." I don't know when that woman last saw a doctor. But I do know that if she had health insurance, the odds she would have seen a doctor long ago are much higher, and her chances for an earlier diagnosis and treatment would have been far greater.

After watching for hours as the patients moved through the clinic, it was hard to believe that I was in America.

Eighty-three percent of the patients they see are employed, they are not accepting other government help on a large scale, not "welfare queens" as some would like to have us believe. They are tax-paying, good, upstanding citizens who are trying to make it and give their kids a better life just like you and me.

Ninety percent of the patients who came through Saturday's clinic had two or more diagnoses.
Eighty-two percent had a life-threatening condition such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or hypertension. They are victims of a system built with corporate profits at its center, which long ago forgot the moral imperative that should drive us to show compassion to our fellow men and women.

Health reform is not about Democrats or Republicans or who can score political points for the next election, it's about people. It's about fairness and justice in a system that knows none. I'd defy even the most hardened capitalist-loving-conservative to do what I did on Saturday and continue to pretend that the system in place right now is working.

Countdown chose to highlight and raise money for the Association of Free Clinics because we knew the work they do is so vitally important and we wanted to show in real terms how great the need is. We invited several politicians to attend so they could see first hand how critical the situation is. All declined. Some explained that they talk with constituents all the time and know very well of the need for reform.

I have news for them, these people didn't need to speak. Their actions spoke far louder than any words. Having to get a check up and diagnosis at a free clinic because they have no other option tells you all you need to know. There are no words that can accurately describe the quiet desperation on the faces of the patients. Every single one I spoke to, and every one I heard talking with doctors, expressed their gratitude for the event and wished that they were held more often.