Area where free medical clinics treat uninsured has ambitious plan for improving people's health

Every summer, the Virginia mountain town of Wise is the site of a huge free clinic where thousands of people without health-insurance coverage get free medical care. Though it is one of several such clinics in the U.S., it tends to get the most news coverage, perhaps because presidential candidate John Edwards stopped there in 2007. Wise County's main newspaper, The Coalfield Progress of Norton, has a story at the top of today's front page on a local effort "to improve the region’s health by coordinating the resources of existing health care systems, public health agencies, colleges and many others." (Progress photo of clinic by Melanie Lane)

"In the midst of a nationwide health care debate, big media has labeled Southwest Virginia as the place where Remote Area Medical sets up shop one weekend each summer to provide services that many people can’t otherwise get," Jeff Lester writes. "If the Southwest Virginia Health Authority has its way, the need for RAM to provide free dental, vision and other care in this region will be eliminated." His source for that is the authority's chairman, the state House of Delegates member who represents the area. The authority, created by the state legislature in 2006, can "accept grants, borrow money, acquire property and construct buildings," Lester notes, and has ambitious goals, including a dental school. (Read more; site is subscription-only)

Meanwhile, RAM has scheduled four more clinics this year in Appalachia: in Harriman, Tenn., Sept. 19-20; Jenkins, Ky., 18 miles across Pine Mountain from Wise, Sept. 26-27; Grundy, Va., 60 miles up the Cumberlands from Wise, Oct. 3-4; Winchester, Tenn., Oct. 17-18; and Maynardville, Tenn., Nov. 14-15. The Winchester clinic will also include a free veterinary clinic.