Kansas City to hold national free health clinic for the uninsured Dec. 9-10 ... the biggest one yet ... why KC was chosen

We have breaking news, if by "breaking news" we mean stuff that happened while I was out last week ...

As you may know, a series of mass free health clinics are being held across the country to call attention to the number of uninsured Americans and the strain that their untreated illnesses put on the nation's health care system. The timing of these clinics is obvious - free clinics are part of our health care system and they believe passionately that everyone deserves good medical care - an objective that dovetails with the current drive in Washington for universal health care.

This is perilous territory for physicians to tread. Taking a stand on such an incendiary political issue is not for the weak of stomach. But then, most doctors and nurses have tummies of steel. Besides, even the most feckless politician would agree that providing quality health care for all at the lowest possible cost is a worthy cause -- and it doesn't get much lower-cost than free.

It all started when celebrity physician Mehmet Oz, who has a new syndicated TV show, led a widely publicized free health clinic in Houston last month, at which nearly 1,800 patients were seen in one day. Many had symptoms that should've been taken care of long ago. One of the most extreme cases was Steven Cantrell, a working man with a blister on his lower lip that developed into a huge, ugly, life-threatening lesion. (Click here if you have a strong stomach.)

A producer on MSNBC's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann," Rich Stockwell, suggested to his boss that he use his pulpit to raise money for more such clinics ... and to hold them in key states where Democratic senators were wavering on a public option in the upcoming legislation on health care reform. Just like that, $1.2 million was raised and a clinic was announced in the home state of Arkansas senator Blanche Lincoln. Then a second, in the state represented by Sen. Mary Landrieux.

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Well, on Wednesday's "Countdown" last week, the National Association of Free Clinics announced a third mass clinic for the uninsured, right here in Kansas City. It will be the first 2-day-long clinic (Dec. 9-10) and according to Nicole Lamoureux, executive director of the association, it is designed as "a national version" of the Houston and Little Rock clinics. So it's not aimed at Sen. Claire McCaskill per se, but rather to make "a huge statement" about the crisis of Americans postponing vital, relatively low-cost medical care because they don't have insurance.

Kansas City was chosen, Lamoureaux told Keith Olbermann, because it has a "robust" free health clinic network, unlike other parts of the country; and, of course, it helps that we are in the middle of the country. Volunteers are always needed for free health clinics coming up, but in particular the big one coming up in Kansas City, so check out the freeclinics.us web site for more info.

For a related story on Dr. Oz, I spoke recently to Sheri Wood, who heads the Kansas City Free Clinic and is the president of the national association that Lamoureux serves. That story is appearing tomorrow in the Kansas City Star. Here's a quote from it. I asked Wood if holding these big free clinics at this time wasn't politically provocative:

“We are trying to stay out of the politics,” says Wood. “There are already clinics in those states. You can turn anything political that you want to. We’re not pushing the public option. The free health clinic movement believes that health care is truly a right, not a privilege, and the more people are insured, the less it will cost the system, because caring for the uninsured is expensive.”