The team included about 30 dentists, 10 medical providers, two vision specialists and 15 nurses.<\/p>\n
TAKOMA PARK, Md. \u2014 Hundreds of people lined up overnight outside Takoma Academy Preparatory School in Takoma Park early Sunday morning, some arriving before midnight, for a chance to see a doctor or dentist free-of-charge.<\/p>\n
The one-day clinic, organized by Remote Area Medical, offered medical services, dental, and vision services to anyone in need, no insurance required.<\/p>\n
By sunrise, the line stretched across the parking lot. Volunteers from across the D.C. region and beyond transformed the school gym into a fully functioning health clinic for the day. The team included about 30 dentists, 10 medical providers, two vision specialists and 15 nurses, all volunteering their time to help those who otherwise might go without care.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey may have insurance but they may not have money for the deductible, or they may have more problems than they can deal with,\u201d said Mary Brown, a volunteer coordinator with Remote Area Medical.<\/p>\n
Brown said rising costs of everyday living, along with uncertainty over jobs and benefits, especially among federal workers, have more people turning to free care than ever before.<\/p>\n
Volunteer dentist Dr. John Osborne said many patients have gone years without treatment.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur patients, 50 percent of them haven\u2019t seen a dentist in the past five to 10 years,\u201d Osborne said. \u201cAnd untreated tooth decay can be deadly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among those waiting for dental care was Elaine Collins, who works with people living with mental illness while caring for her mother at home. She said worried about rising expenses and fears losing her Affordable Care Act coverage amid the ongoing budget standoff in Washington.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can\u2019t get it together, they want to erase it,\u201d Collins said. \u201cThey\u2019re saying if I get the private insurance, it\u2019s going to go up $795.\u201d<\/p>\n
Collins said she waited hours but was grateful for the opportunity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything has gone up, so this is a nice service, a good service if you can get in,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Volunteers arrived Saturday to set up the clinic and planned to see as many patients as possible before packing up and heading to their next stop.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s gonna be a wait,\u201d Collins said, \u201cbut for free, you have to wait.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Takoma Park clinic lasted just one day, but organizers said the need doesn\u2019t end here.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Remote Area Medical plans to hold similar pop-up clinics across the country in the coming months, aiming to reach people before small health problems turn into major ones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The team included about 30 dentists, 10 medical providers, two vision specialists and 15 nurses. TAKOMA PARK, Md.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-240923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}