The goodness of America.

Unemployed, Uninsured Get Medical Help

With health insurance usually being heavily subsidized by employers, becoming unemployed often means becoming uninsured. Those who find themselves in such circumstances in Moore County, North Carolina, can receive medical treatment at Moore Free Care Clinic in Carthage. The clinic is a private, volunteer-based, nonprofit organization that provides primary healthcare services at no cost to limited-income people who lack healthcare insurance.

One such individual is Yvonne Covington, who once worked two part-time jobs, one as a custodian at a local elementary school and another as a home-care aide. Neither job provided health insurance coverage. And her husband, who is 70 and disabled, was unable to work.

One day, as Mrs. Covington was dressing for work, she felt a lump in her breast.

"I was frightened about the lump, but I was also frightened of the cost of finding it," she told the Southern Pines Pilot (North Carolina).

Mrs. Covington had been a patient at the Moore Free Care Clinic before finding the lump, due to asthma and high blood pressure problems, so she contacted them and was seen by Susan Craven, a nurse practitioner who is also the clinic's director.

Nurse Craven referred Mrs. Covington to a radiology facility for a mammogram, followed up by a biopsy, which showed she had a malignancy. She had a lumpectomy and several lymph nodes were also removed.