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For 24 years, Matthew Abdi held a job and his health insurance. But as the financial crisis struck the United States, Abdi was laid off from his post at British Airways in September of 2008. His struggle to find work, along with adequate health care, left him disoriented and depressed.
Last month, Abdi turned to the Arlington Free Clinic, enduring the agonizing lottery system that determines which new patients receive treatment. Now, Abdi is not only getting treatment for his physical ailments, but, if free clinics can handle the influx of newly uninsured Americans, he also hopes they’ll help him cope with his depression.
Anup Shah is a science desk intern at NPR.
I am the volunteer medical director of the Arlington Free Clinic, and am extremely pleased that more people are learning about free clinics, and hope these programs will convince more people of the need to change our health care system. Tom Connally