What if, through volunteer effort, every nurse, doctor and assistant working for free clinics was fed? Supplied? Housed?
There is a lot of untapped labor in America right now. Quite a lot of untapped skill. Recessions are a human failing, a breakdown of trust. That when someone pays me a dollar, they wonder harder, care harder, if they will get a dollar's worth of good for it.
The lack of promissory notes to exchange does not reduce the skills that Americans possess. Farmers can still grow food, electricians can still wire houses. I can still maintain servers and it is a rare American that has only one or even just a few skills.
And yet, health care presents a disturbingly troubling issue. I spend a fair portion of my own time doubled over in pain, because I make too much to get public care... but no where near enough to pay for treatment on my own. Every moment I am in agony is a moment I am not doing my best, or even much at all. This is a reality faced by not a few, but millions of Americans.
This has to be solved.
America needs health care, badly. If we can reduce the financial burden that these clinics face - through any means - they can provide more care. Perhaps, somehow, with enough effort, more than 'just' clinics might be supported.
I have to wonder if enough providers of wealth - by which I am not referring to money, but the ability to provide talents, products and services - can band together to actually drive health care costs close to zero in this country.
Even if that is impossible, however, I believe there is a lot that more that can be done to aid free clinics and those who work for them than just pure monetary donations.
If there is a real interest in this, something can be coordinated. Every twelve minutes, an American dies for no reason. There are very few who don't want to stop this, and not harnessing what can be done is wasting lives.
To put my own time and skill where my mouth is, if a free clinic wants a web presence, my address is in my profile.
Thank you for reading.