The u. S. A recent gallup poll found one fourth of americans say they or a Family Member delayed treatment for a serious medical condition because they couldnt afford it. Thats where volunteer health clinics, like remote area medical or ram are stepping up to fill the gap. Ram, and its volunteer doctors, have provided more than 785 thousand patients with free medical care since 1985. And the number of individuals served has more than doubled just in the last six years. At a recent twoday clinic in suitland, maryland, near washington, d. C. , people lined up outside in the cold waiting for care and once inside, they were grateful for the help. At least somebody cares. With the big government, they dont care. Especially if you cant afford it. You go to a hospital, which ive had many times, and i get these outrageous bills. But i have to go to the hospital. I dont have a choice. Soledad jeff eastman is the ceo of remote area medical. Thanks for joining me. Walk me through how it works. How do people find out that youre going to be coming to their area . How early do they start lining up . Jeff it starts out what we call the Community Host model, where someone in that Community Stands up and says we want to bring ram through our community. From there, its a process at headquarters. We come out, take a look at the area and we help recruit volunteers in that area. Soledad when do you open the doors . Like in suitland, where we were, people were lined up through the parking lot. It was quite cold. I know you open the doors pretty quickly. Jeff they started lining up the day before. Its not uncommon when we set up on thursday, for people to start lining up the day before. They get the numbers passed out to them, usually around 3 00 in the morning. Ive got great volunteers. Soledad so once you get a number, that is your order. Jeff first come, first serve. We asked no i. D. Soledad i was going to ask you. You just tell the doctor how youre feeling it. Jeff we ask one question. Where does it hurt . Soledad you started the organization in 1985. Whats the difference that youre seeing in the kinds of ailments people have from, lets say, 1985 to today . Jeff lets go back about six years. People come to their immediate pain, which is dental and vision. There was a majority of the knee when people first came to it. However, in this last year, were seeing more and more people surely want their immediate miseries or pain taken care of, which is dental vision. Weve also increased on the medical side. We have more people coming, women for mammograms, mental health, wound care, just general medicine. Soledad so what does that tell you . Whats your assessment of that shift . Is it that the Health Care Net is failing people, that they have to help that a clinic shows up in the neighborhood to give them basic medical care . Jeff well, what that tells me is what were doing is not working. You know, you and i both have insurance. I doubt very much that we have health care. If you take a look at a minimum, a person earning a minimum wage of approximately 15,000 here in the u. S. , if they are lucky enough to have insurance, they have the 2500 deductible, that 8020 copay. So for them, its almost impossible to get to it. Jeff in suitland, i was surprised to see how diverse it was. I mean, it was in every way, right . It was old people and young people and babies and black people and white people. I mean, it was everybody. Jeff exactly right. It doesnt make a difference where we go, whether were down on the texas border, florida, one of the richest counties we have in the country, orange county, california. Its people all across. Its working people. Soledad how are you a federal employee whos struggling to get basic health care . Jeff yeah, whether youre a federal employee, you dont have health care, or through your employer. Its just not working. Soledad im always divided. Is this amazing, because it is amazing, but is it also a bandaid on what needs to be a policy solution . Right. Like youre solving a problem and its amazing that People Volunteer their time. I mean, an incredibly helpful for the people who need the care. But theres part of me thats like, we could just Fix Health Care in america. Jeff its a tough question. You know, when you take a look at a high level it is a hard decision for our policymakers to figure out. Till then, were gonna have great neighbors helping neighbors. Weve had 135,000 volunteers over the year, have treated over 800,000 patients. Until that solution is out there, well be there to fill that gap and make that difference. Soledad are you optimistic . I mean, is the goal that one day people will be like, we dont need you here . Im all covered. We have access to health care. Jeff you know, theyd be a great goal to retire from leading this organization. Problem has been solved. Were going back to our roots. Were going back to those jungles in south america. Were going back to latin america. Were gonna go out and make a difference in the rest of the world because the us has got this covered. It has been so nice to have you. Jeff thank you so much. Just one more thing. If you if youd like to volunteer with us, it is real simple. Go to ramusa. Org. You dont have to be a doctor. Whats amazing is that for every dollar thats donated, we deliver three the care. 10,000 becomes 30,000. Soledad worthwhile investment. Nice to have you. Coming up, is america ready for a Major Third Party . Of our democracy. Plus, d. C. s known for its monuments and museums, but what about its farms . And americas in debt, deep debt. Soledad 23 trillion can be hard to imagine, so ill try to break it down for you. To imagine, so ill try to break it down for you. Those darn seatbelts got me all crumpled up. Thats ok hey, guys hi mrs. Patterson. Wrinkles send the wrong message. Sorry. Help prevent them before they start with new downy wrinkleguard. But how do i know if im im getting a good deal . I tell truecar my zip and which car i want and truecar shows the range of prices people in my area actually paid for the same car so i know if im getting a great price. This is how car buying was always meant to be. This is truecar. Soledad from ross perot to ralph nader, president ial elections often include a Third Party Candidate who tries to do what no one has been able to do upset americas two party system. Its been more than one hundred years since a Third Party Candidate outperformed one of the major party candidates. It was Theodore Roosevelt back in 1912. He ran on a progressive ticket and finished second, behind democrat woodrow wilson. Despite the fact that no Third Party Candidate has ever won, a recent study found that 60 of americans think the u. S. Needs another party. Lee drutman was the coauthor of that study and he has a new book coming out called, breaking the two Party Doom Loop the case for multiparty democracy in america. It is so nice to have you. Im almost afraid to ask, whats the doom loop . Lee the doom loop is what were experiencing every day in washington. Escalating partisan warfare, increasingly aggressive politics, zero sum, everything about winning the next next election, everything high stakes, all or nothing. And its destroying the very fabric of our democracy. A sense of shared shared rules, shared norms, shared facts, even. And if it continues, i think it will break our democracy. Soledad lets talk about that poll for a second. 60 said that they thought that there should be a new third party. But did they agree on what that third party should stand for or represent . Lee no. People some people want a party thats more liberal than democrats. Some people want to party in the middle. Some people want a party thats more conservative than the republicans. And thats one of the reasons why we dont have a third party emerge. Another reason, perhaps more central reason is that we have electoral rules that that make it very hard for third parties to get a foothold. Because we have winner take all elections, which tend towards just two parties. Soledad when i hear 68 , i think thats a percentage thats higher than the percentage that votes. In this country. So is that really a reflection of just people who are annoyed with politics generally . I mean, or are they saying, hey, listen, if there was a Third Party Candidate, wed suddenly see the percentage of people who vote in america, which is somewhere on 50 percent, go up really alive . Lee some of it is just frustration with politics. And that number has steadily increased over the last several decades. Its a frustration. Most people will vote for one of the two parties, but they might say, well, thats the lesser of two evils. Thats not the party that that that i really wish i were supporting. But its just when you have two options, you have to pick one if pyou want to vote. I think the share of americans voting would certainly go up if there were more parties. The u. S. Is a very low turnout country. If you compare us to most other advanced democracies and in countries with more parties, turnout tends to be higher because theyre more likely for people to find a party that they feel represents them well. And elections also tend to be more competitive when you have a proportional Voting System because every vote matters, its not just if youre in a swing district or a swing state that your vote matters, which is the case for a lot of americans. And you also have more parties competing in more places, trying to get more people to vote. A lot of parts of this country have been written off by one or the other party. Democrats have closed up offices throughout rural and exurban america. Republicans have closed up offices in urban and and certain suburbs. Both parties have just essentially given up on parts of the country. Soledad what are your predictions for the parties, the two parties that we have in the two party system that we have as the left seems to be pushing all the candidates more to the left and the right seems to be pushing a lot of the candidates more to the right. Does that just continue . Lee i think it does continue. You know, its almost not even left and right, but its more in terms of policy, but its just more aggressive political hardball. You know, republicans have pushed really hard on gerrymandering. Theres huge fights on on who gets to vote in this country. Basic rule of democracy questions. We are we are having these very contested issues over the rules of the game, which and if we cant agree on the rules of the game, we dont have a democracy. Soledad the book is called breaking the two Party Doom Loop. It comes out on january 2nd. Lee, nice to see you. Thanks for talking with us. Lee great to be with you. When we come back, meet the woman changing the face of farming. Class, you probably hear it every day. Yet millions of people still dont know what it means. You know when youre at ross and you find their favorite hero. At a price that makes you the hero . Yes thats yes for less. Yes with hot holiday toys for all ages, ross is your toy destination. It feels even better when you find it for less. At ross. Yes for less. It feels even better when you find it for less. And you find a deal on cookware that makes you say. You know when youre at ross yes . Oh, yeah bring on the holidays thats yes for less. Everything you need to prep, cook and serve up the season. It feels even better when you find it for lessat ross. Yes for less. Soledad right now in america, there are more than 23million People Living in what are known as food deserts. These are areas that are more than 10 miles from a supermarket, where many of the residents are living in poverty, and dont have access to a car. It makes finding fresh fruits, vegetables and healthy affordable food options difficult. Washington, d. C. Is one area struggling with food insecurity. More than 11percent of the city is considered a food desert. But Community Organizers are trying to change that, one small urban farm at a time. Gail when you take a group of Elementary Students in this country and you ask them to close their eyes and visualize what a farmer is, it doesnt look like me. Soledad and so gail taylor went on a mission to change that perception. Creating this space, the three Part Harmony Farm right in the heart of washington, d. C. Gail we are basically like a greens and roots and earth and flower farm. Soledad here gail, her partners john and cristina along with trainees and volunteers work 6 days a week to cultivate the land. Then distribute the produce to a local communitysupported Agriculture Program or csa. Gail our csa is different because its urban. So there arent many farms that can say that their lettuce is being harvested within a bike ride of where like 95 percent of their customers live. Soledad gail says its also different because it partners with other farms to bring its members a wider range of products. Those farms are carefully chosen. Gail none of the contributing farms to our csa are owned by majority cyst gender cisgender white men. Access to market is a big thing. Soledad it hasnt been easy. Gails quest began in 2011. A trained farmer and a former policy advocate she found this plot of land. Gail its a two acre parcel of land thats been owned for over a hundred years by an order of priests. And i approached them about starting a Vegetable Farm on their property. We all have a role to play to increase consumption of healthy food and implement positive soledad together with church representatives, law students and a local Council Member she drafted a bill that encouraged people to lease their land to farmers in exchange for tax benefits. The legislation now known as the d. C. Farm bill passed in 2014 and the three Part Harmony Farm was born. Although farming in the city hasnt been without challenges. Including a lack of space. Gail sometimes theres overflow. My living room has had a thousand pounds of potatoes in it at some point this year. Like all the winter squash that weve had, i get 300 pieces every week. 250 of them end up in my living room. This is all set. Soledad to keep the quality on point, the vegetables are distributed on the same day theyre harvested. Which means gail and her team have to work quickly. The tables are laid out and the members have started arriving. Some are here purely for the vegetables. Theyve convinced me to try these radishes, and given me a really easy way to cook it. Soledad others, with a deeper purpose. Black Women Farmers are a dying population. Having land that you can actually grow on in the black community is now down to less than 2 percent in the nation. So for all the reasons, its important. Soledad as the market wraps up, the day winds down. Its been 13 hours of nonstop work for gail and the team. But one with a simple reward. My dream is for myself and my staff to wake up and be able to do this and only this, to grow food for people we care about, to nourish our neighbors, and have that be enough. Coming up next, it just keeps growing and growing. Soledad at the beginning of the year, the National Debt was just under 22 trillion dollars. Now its more than that . Does Congress Care . California phones offers free specialized phones. Like cordless phones. phone ringing big button, and volumeenhanced phones. Get details on this state program. Visit right now or call during business hours. Satchel paige was still dominating batters at 59. At 52 celia cruz was still winning grammys at 77 john wheeler illuminated our ideas of the universe at 70 and roger crouch was 56 when he first went into space your best is yet to come and accessoriesphones for your mobile phone. Like this device to increase volume on your cell phone. phone ringing get details on this state Program Visit right now or call during business hours. Soledad now to a weekly feature we like to call were paying attention even if youre too busy. From Approval Ratings to polls. There are a lot of ups and downs in washington. But the one thing that is always increasing is the National Debt. At the beginning of the year, the National Debt was just under 22 trillion dollars. Since then weve added more than a trillion to that number. And its still climbing. 23 trillion can be hard to imagine. So well break it down for you. That is about 187,000 owed by every taxpayer. Surprised you dont hear more politicians talking about the deficit . Dont be. Most americans say its not a top priority. According to a recent pew research poll, only 48 percent of americans surveyed said reducing the budget deficit should be a top priority for the president and congress. That number is 24 lower than when pew did the same survey back in 2013. When we return, even after wall to wall coverage, millions of people dont know what the word impeach really means . What about you . She wanted to move someplace warm. But he wanted snow for the holidays. So we built a snow globe. Ill get that later. Dylan but the one thing we could both agree on was getting geico to help with homeowners insurance. What . Switching and saving was really easy i love you what . Sweetie hands off the glass. Ugh call geico and see how easy saving on homeowners and condo insurance can be. I love her why do wrinkles happen at the worst times . With new bounce rapid touch up spray, you just spray smooth and youre fresh and ready to go wherever you are. New bounce rapid touch up spray. Bounce out wrinkles anywhere. Tto harrison, the wine tcollection. To craig, this rock. I leave these things to my heirs, all 39 million of you, on one condition. That you do everything to preserve and protect them. With love, california. Soledad and finally, the word that sent people reaching for their laptops and phones all year was the nonbinary pronoun they. The merriamwebster dictionary crowned they the word of the year for 2019. They as a common pronoun has been around for about 600 years. But merriamwebster just added the definition of they as a nonbinary pronoun in september. Nonbinary refers to a Single Person who consciously does not identify as either male or female. Searches for the word increased by 3