Hey there, Bentop Hospital is a publicly funded safety net hospital in Houston, Texas.

Majority of patients don't have insurance of any kind.

Dr. Ricardo Nueva has been working at Bentop since he was an intern, a medical student.

Took me on a tour.

I started here and literally I just did not want to leave here because I just just really enjoyed

my job here. He's just published a book called The People's Hospital. It's not just a love letter

to the place. It's a pitch and the pitch is not only is this place way way cheaper than what we're

used to. In many ways it's better and it's a model, a real alternative to what we're used to.

So when I ask him to pick one patient story from the book to tell, he picks a patient he calls

Stephen, a restaurant manager, a Republican, a guy who did not expect to end up here.

But he had a giant lump on the side of his throat and his insurance didn't cover much.

He paid cash up front to get seen in a local ER.

Finally, there was a doctor who had seen a CAT scan and said, you have tonsilor cancer.

However, you don't have insurance.

Tonsilor cancer, cancer of the tonsils that landed hard. So did the however.

He felt shitty that somebody could tell you cancer but there's nothing that we're going to do

about it because of your of how much and yeah, it's like it's too painful or too obvious.

To finish the sentence because of your insurance.

Somebody tells Stephen to try the public hospital, Ben Tog, and he expects the worst, but

that's not what he finds. He comes to love this place. This is like so Stephen, but he

gives gift cards to the people greeting at the door because they're nice and they do their job well

because they make his day. And it's not just that he likes the people at the door.

...