Volunteer doctors, nurses and other medical care professionals would staff nonprofit health centers. In addition, there could be a small paid staff to handle some of the administrative tasks at each center. This proposal is based on the successful model, Volunteers in Medicine, which opened the first VIM In Hilton Head, South Carolina in the mid-1990s. As a nonprofit health center organized under section 501 (c) 3 all contributions are tax deductible. Contributions from local foundations, businesses, high net worth individuals and others would fund the annual operating expenses of each center.
Mike and Tom should immediately go to https://volunteersinmedicine.org and learn how their enormous resources can be used to solve a “national issue” with local resources.
Mike could visit the Bergen Volunteer Medical Initiative (BVMI) in Hackensack and see for himself the great services provided to individuals in south Bergen County.
(For the record, I was invited by the founder, the late Sam Cassell, to be a founding trustee of BVMI and served on the board for several years and am an annual donor.)
BVMI partners with local hospitals and specialists to provide comprehensive care for individuals in the community.
As the saying goes this is not rocket science. In fact, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with more than $50 billion in assets, could partner with the mega wealthy to help raise the funds needed to operate each VIM annually.
Instead of Medicare for all, a single-payer medical system, or another top-down approach from Washington DC, the super wealthy in our society as well as middle income individuals could do good instead of pissing away money on political campaigns.