The United States has no health care system.  We pay twice what other industrialized countries pay (between $8000 and $9000 per person, per year - more than housing and education costs!!) and have a population that ranks between 25^th and 75^th in the world, in terms of life expectancy and other measures of health.

What is a community to do?

It turns out that the things that matter, in order to make the population as healthy as possible, are all things communities can do for themselves.  Getting rid of smoking, getting people to change their diet - to eat locally grown fruits and vegetables - helping people to exercise, making sure that everyone has a decent education, a decent income, and decent housing are all important, and are all things we can do together.  Making sure everyone has good primary care is also important, and primary care is affordable by all of us.  (It costs $25 to 30 per person per month. See www.healthaccessri.com

YesWeCan-RI members work to help people understand what is important to build and maintain health, and to establish community-based health care services in their cities or towns.  One of our members (Michael Fine) started such a service–the first in the US–in little Scituate Rhode Island. It provides primary medical care and dental care to all town residents–an innovation pioneered by a committee of volunteers.  We hope to work with other communities, to spread this model across the state and the nation.

Health care is a service local people can provide for themselves, in a way that is affordable and effective.

YesWeCan-RI.  Better together.

Contact us to learn more or to bring affordable community-based healthcare to your community.