From monetary costs to physical proximity, receiving health care in the rural Ozarks – and beyond – can be challenging. In southwest Missouri, Dr. John Lorette explained to me how he is working to make it easier for people to cope with those realities. In 2018, the retired emergency physician founded Volunteers in Medicine Christian County, a nonprofit running two health clinics in the Ozarks that care for uninsured individuals who are 18 to 64 and live at or below 200% of the federal poverty level, which in 2025 was about $64,300 for a family of four, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

The volunteer-powered nonprofit, part of the national Volunteers in Medicine network (VIM), offers two clinics each month: One that moves throughout the region and another based in a “tiny” home on a church parking lot.

“Being by a church, they’re like, ‘Are you preaching to me?’” Lorette told me. “No, we’re doing it in the name of God. That’s where our heart is, but we’re not trying to force anything on anybody.

“We’re just trying to show a Christian attitude of caring for others who need health care.”

The “VIM” project grew out of a realization: After returning from an overseas mission trip, Lorette considered the need in his own backyard.

“I thought, ‘I know there are people that need care, but they don’t have medical insurance, so they don’t get the primary care that they need,’” he said recently. That led to the start of the nonprofit, which is supported exclusively by volunteers.

“I would say that most of the patients who come in are having an issue,” Lorette said. “Their blood pressure is high, their sugar’s high. They’ve been told they have some condition that they used to be able to see a doctor for, but now, because of a job loss, marriage disruption, something going on in their family, they suddenly no longer have that care.”

Read the full article about Volunteers in Medicine Christian County by Kaitlyn McConnell at The Daily Yonder.