RAM provides free medical care to uninsured and underinsured Americans
A nonprofit called RAM is bringing free health care to Americans who need it. Some patients wait days and sleep in their cars in order to get dental, vision, and medical treatment at RAM clinics.
About one third of Americans say they have skipped meals, borrowed money, or cut back on utilities to pay for health care. That's in a Gallup poll released in March. The Trump administration has lowered prices on more than 50 drugs. But it also let premiums rise — even double — in the Affordable Care marketplace and made the biggest cuts ever to Medicaid. Already, 3 million have lost insurance and it's estimated it'll be 10 million in three years. All of this reminded us of our story in 2008, about a charity called Remote Area Medical . RAM started out parachuting doctors into South American jungles. But in the 1990s, it turned to another isolated people: Americans cut off from health care by the cost. Recently, we returned to RAM at one of its free, pop-up clinics. For Americans long on pain and short on hope, RAM is a ray of mercy in the darkness.
The parking lot in Knoxville, Tennessee began to fill early. In a frigid February, many drove hundreds of miles in desperation. Nearby, Remote Area Medical would open a clinic inside an empty exhibit hall. But RAM can take only so many patients on a weekend, so they join the line days before. We met Sandra Tallent at 5 a.m.
Scott Pelley: Sandra, where'd you come from?
Scott Pelley: And how long have you been in the parking lot here?
Sandra Tallent: Since 4:30 Wednesday night.
Scott Pelley: Wednesday night. So, Wednesday night, Thursday night, and this is Friday morning.