Southwest PA Members build connections through Urgent Dental Care
The Mission of Mercy dental clinic offering free dental, vision and hearing care, was in Pittsburgh Nov. 1 & 2, 2024 at the convention center downtown. Put People First! PA Healthcare Rights Committee (HRC) members and mobilizers worked together before the Membership Assembly to connect with and plan rides for people who might need to attend. Members from throughout the state contacted people who responded to our Facebook post, to share information about the clinic and ask who needed a ride. PPF-PA is not affiliated with Mission of Mercy, and we understand the limitations of charity care, but believe it’s important to help meet our needs for dental as well as vision and hearing care, which is often not covered by insurance and which many of us cannot afford. The profiteers that sponsor charity care have tax exempt status and must offer charity as a condition of that status.
Southwest PA HRC was particularly active for this clinic, with numerous members and mobilizers offering rides to or from the convention center. While driving or on the phone or in line, we listened to people’s stories, while agitating & organizing to demand our human right to healthcare. We call our activity at the clinic a project of survival, based on the example of the Panthers – survival, pending revolution! We did meet people who want to organize for healthcare as a human right, and are following up with them. We are also pushing for legislation to restore the Adult Dental Benefit for people on Medicaid, which was taken away in 2011 but legislation to restore it passed the PA House (but not the PA Senate) in 2024.
At the clinic, as happens with charity care, some needs were taken care of while others weren’t. Those of us who received care stood outside for hours early in the morning in cold November weather; those at the beginning of the line had camped out overnight. And while bottles of water were sometimes offered to those in line, there were no bathroom facilities to use until we went indoors, so how could we drink the water? Outside, there were no accommodations for patients with a disability, kids or the elderly. Some potential patients had to leave, since it was too cold to wait with kids until they were admitted, or they left when the line stopped moving for over an hour, or their health conditions were triggered by the cold. Others had to wait for interpreters. Many of those who attended on Saturday were unable to get time off during the week for dental or other care and cannot afford the cost of root canals, dentures, glasses, hearing aids or other needed services. And so we get our teeth pulled, or use generic ‘readers’, or struggle to hear well, further undermining our health.
Some of those who received care and spoke to us were very pleased with the indoor conditions, the care received from the dental, hearing or vision staff was good, and the line moved more quickly on Saturday than on Friday. The problem is the conditions that excluded many. Many cannot take advantage, even on Saturday, if they are not in line before dawn and can wait outdoors for hours. Is this how our healthcare system should work? We say no! And that’s why we’re fighting for the human right to health care, so that each and every one of us can get what we need when we need it. Our nation has the resources, but refuses to spend them on our care.
- Adult Dental Benefit, Base-building, Medicaid, Medicaid Cut Offs Organizing Drive, Nonviolent Medicaid Army, Southwest PA
- charity, dental care, Mission of mercy