Rural uninsured in U.S. get care from volunteer doctor group created for the Third World

Many uninsured people in rural America are getting health care from a group set up to provide care to people in Third World countries, Sara Corbett reports in The New York Times Magazine, in a short story accompanied by several black-and-white photographs with long cutlines. Remote Area Medical "has sent health expeditions to countries like Guyana, India, Tanzania and Haiti, but increasingly its work is in the United States, where 47 million people — more than 15 percent of the population — live without health insurance," Corbett writes.

"Residents of remote rural areas are less likely than their urban and suburban counterparts to have health insurance and more likely to be in fair or poor health. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, nearly half of all adults in rural America are living with at least one chronic condition. Other research has found that in these areas, where hospitals and primary-care providers are in short supply, rates of arthritis, hypertension, heart ailments, diabetes and major depression are higher than in urban areas."

Corbett's reporting is centered on RAM's visit to the Wise County Fairgrounds in southwest Virginia last July. "The problem, says RAM’s founder, Stan Brock, is always in the numbers, with the patients’ needs far outstripping what his team can supply. In Wise County, when the sun rose and the fairground gates opened at 5:30 on Friday morning, more than 800 people already were waiting in line." (Read more) For a slide show of the photos, by Larry Towell of Magnum, click here.