While Democratic and Republican lawmakers bickered over budget deficits in Sacramento and Washington, last week thousands of uninsured and underinsured Californians endured long lines and chilly weather to receive the health care denied to them under our cruel, profit-driven system. Tennessee-based Remote Area Medical held free health clinics first in Sacramento, then in Oakland. Much of the demand was for dental and vision care, which are not offered in most insurance plans.

Rose Aguilar of KALW in San Francisco, took the following videos from the clinic in Oakland.

Aguilar interviews a former postal worker who has no health insurance

RAM also operates clinics in Haiti and the Amazon Basin, but, incredibly, 64% of its work is done right here in the United States! Shouldn’t we, who love to call ourselves “the greatest nation on Earth,” be embarrassed by this situation? I think a country that continues to tolerate millions of its citizens going without basic health care can no longer claim such a title.

Sylvia@californiaonecare.org