Step One - Find a Health Care Provider

If I had any decent insurance, even just your basic HMO, all I'd have to do is make a quick call and find out which plan doctor(s) is near my residence or workplace.
Based on my experience with my previous Anthem/COVA coverage, I'd have a list of many doctors from which to choose.
But I am uninsured and my choice of affordable options is very limited.
Hospitals? MCV or Bon Secours are it. They are the only hospitals in the area that offer sliding scale care for the uninsured, and they offer it only to those making 200% of the minimum wage or less a month.
Clinics? There's MCV, Crossover Clinics, Fan Clinic, Richmond Community, various public health departments and the Bon Secours CAREVANS.
That may sound like quite a few options but when you factor in limited hours, volunteer staff and mostly out-of-the-way and even down-right dangerous locations,the options become very narrow.
Many of those clinics (Fan Free, health departments) tend to specialize in STDs and birth control issues or children's vaccinations. Some of Crossover's clinics are in crime-ridden neighborhoods. The CAREVANS take only a limited amount of clients per session and will take children and the elderly before working, yet equally ill, adults. The CAREVAN that week may be way across town. It may be weeks before it comes anywhere near my neighborhood again.
Have you ever stood in 95 degree heat for three hours waiting for medical care for high blood pressure and then been turned away because the clinic quota is full?
I have.
Have you ever had to be screened for both finances (4 pay check stubs, W-2) AND American citizenship/ID (Drivers/State ID/Social Security card) weeks before seeing a doctor? If you are uninsured you probably have experienced this indignity.
I waited two months just to get an eligibility screening and then another month before I could get into see an actual doctor. My blood pressure is 160/92 and I am still waiting to see that doc.