I Need a Million Dollars

 To open a private walk-in clinic, I estimate that $1,000,000 should be enough to get us going. The comercial property I want to buy in Nashville is $715,000; the rest should be enough to equip the place for day 1. I could really use some big donors to keep it going, though.

Maybe I should explain what I'm talking about ... 

My dream for not too long has been to open a clinic for the poor and underserved. It has developed to wanting an on-site clinic in Nashville, with a mobile clinic to go out east to Appalachia. This is partly something my brother has suggested, and also stems from my (extreme) dissatisfaction with the way the American healthcare system is run, from a nurse's point of view. 

I want a clinic like the old medical offices: patient comes in, sees the doctor, gets treatment, and pays the doctor. The End. No insurance, no billing codes, no Medicare. Doctors could charge what they would. Doctors like St. Giuseppe Moscati could charge nothing to those who could not afford it, or only take partial payment from those with a little more bit still in difficult circumstances. 

There are a number of physicians moving to "cash-only" practice, not accepting any insurance. As someone who has had to fullfil insurance requirements on the charting end, I absolutely understand it. We get really tired of the practice of our medical or nursing profession being dictated by people who are not affected by the rules they make, be that insurance companies or the State. So, if we don't take your insurance, you can't tell us what to do. If we don't accept Medicare/Medicade, the government can't tell us to provide [insert unethical practice for which we have to ask a religious exemption or go to the Supreme Court]. 

Yes, you read that correctly: we will run a clinic for the poor that will not take Medicade. The cost for a visit will be pre-determined. If an x-ray, ultrasound, or other procedure is required, that price will be pre-determined as well. This is how the clinic at the Mission in Mouila where I worked was run. 

We will be 100% Catholic, of course, not prescribing or recommending contraception. We will also not distribute vaccines of any kind, just to avoid the issue all together. There will be crucifixes on the walls, and a picture of Ven. Jerome Lejeune in the room with the ultrasound machine!

Where it gets a little tricky is determining what portion of the bill a patient can afford. We would need some sort of algorithm based on income, number of children, etc. I will gladly welcome a volunteer mathematician to help figure that out. 

As I said above, $1,000,000 should get us started, but we would need a donor to keep us going, at least for the first 50 years or so. I need a staff that is not worried about getting a pay check, that will fill multiple position (receptionist and housekeeper, for example), that is in it because they want to serve Our Lord in this way. I can't promise you anything but work and a chance to follow the Gospels. 

If 1,000,000 people read this post and each one sent me $1, we could start. I beg of you to share this post. Contact me if you're interested in anything I'm talking about and want to help (themissionshop.jmj@gmail.com).

But I'm not done. I'm actually about to say something that makes getting $1,000,000 look easy. 

I need a doctor.

Not just any doctor, a doctor who's even crazier than I am!

As an LPN, I don't believe I can be the one to open the clinic. A physician has to do it. So ... Do you know any who want an adventure? Who live on the edge? Who aren't worried about money? I've got a place for you!!

There will be no charting for more than you personally find necessary. There will be very little money. You'll probably be the only physician in the clinic for a long time, and I may be the only nurse (the Missionaries of Charity started as an order of 1). You will see all sorts of patients. I want you to be able to do ultrasounds and x-rays, and treat everything that comes in. I want St. Giuseppe Moscati to be your role model, as St. Camillus de Lellis will be mine. I want you to crash onto your mattress on the floor of your apartment every night (because you can't afford a bed frame) intensely satisfied with your vocation. 

I ask you to pray for this idea and whatever it may turn into in the future. 

So, who's ready to found the Moscati House??