Bringing Health Care To Katrina's Uninsured

Hundreds of people still without health insurance in areas hit hard by Hurricane Katrina lined up before dawn Sunday for the start of a week-long event offering free medical care.

Bundled up against the chilly wind, people began arriving at 2 a.m. outside the tents and doublewide trailers offering free care in eastern New Orleans . By the time the first 50 had been called into the registration tent, the crowd numbered in the hundreds.

Penny Anderson, her daughter, and three small grandchildren came to see a dentist. "My daughter went online to try to get health insurance for me and my husband," she said. "It was $799 a month! That's a house note!"

The health fair is open to anyone from the New Orleans area but is specifically aimed at those who no longer have insurance, are unemployed or otherwise cannot pay for regular health care. By the end of the week, 10,000 patients are expected to be seen.

The project is a collaboration by Pat Robertson's Operation Blessing International and Remote Area Medical, which organizes volunteer medical treatment in remote parts of the United States and the world.

While most people wouldn't consider New Orleans remote, the city is, "since Hurricane Katrina, extremely remote from a medical and health-care infrastructure," said Karen Wilson, executive director of the Remote Area Medical Foundation.

More than 400 health-care workers have volunteered for the health fair, including doctors, dentists and specialists. Services include free prescriptions; dental fillings and teeth cleanings; eye exams and glasses; and specialized care, including pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, diabetic care and cardiology.

Claudette Stone, 52, of Chalmette was first in line for most of the morning. She had tried several times to see doctors brought by the same groups about a year ago for her diabetes, high blood pressure and other problems. But she arrived after 8 a.m. and couldn't get in.

Though daily clinics are available, she's had trouble getting into those, too, even though she arrived at 4 a.m.

"Some days they'll see 15 people, some days 10. There would already be that many people lined up," she said.

Farther back in line, Zachary Jackson, 54, and Ray Stringer, 60, said they had come to New Orleans for demolition and rebuilding jobs. Neither had insurance through his employer.

"You can't put a price on this," Jackson said.

"There's no way," Stringer agreed.