2,000 Americans get Health Care in animal pens at a fairground

Former insurance executive Wendell Potter told Bill Moyers that he left the insurance industry after attending the Wise County health fair where he saw people being treated in animal stalls and contrasted it with the gold-plated silverware found on the corporate jets he flew. It rekindled something in Potter's conscience, and he decided to testify about insurance industry abuses at Congressional hearings on health care reform.

People are still being treated in animal stalls. The Wise County free health care clinic is being held this weekend. So far, nearly 2,000 Appalachian residents, all of whom can't afford to be treated at doctor's offices due to the lack of affordable and accessible heath insurance, have been treated in the animal stalls of the Wise County Fairgrounds. Here are some photos from the fair:

Here is a link to an article in the Kingsport Times-News about it.

Imagine that you are a diabetic who should be seeing a doctor every 3 or 4 months to avoid complications that could lead to blindness or amputations - but you don't have insurance, so you wait and see one of the doctors donating time to check you in an animal barn at the local fairgrounds once a year... And if you are not lucky enough to live in Wise County where this health fair is held annually, maybe you have to go more than a year for checkups.

And this is in the United States of America - not some 3rd world country.

We need Universal Single Payer health insurance. I think citizens need to continue fighting for that and let the politicians do the compromising. In the end we have to make sure they know that a strong, Medicare like public option is our line in the sand.