In fact, money shouldn’t determine whether your sore throat becomes pneumonia. This is the harsh reality in salt lake free clinic, and you should know it before you assume that “free” is synonymous with “weak.”

Over at the Fourth Street Clinic, not far from downtown, you’ll find the treatment room. Don’t think of a reception area with rows of cots and cans of soup. Dental care.

Counseling for behavioral health.

Real primary care, with real visits, and real follow up. The staff monitor diabetes and high blood pressure just as a private practice would, but there’s no bill at the conclusion.

And there’s Maliheh Free Clinic. With the exception of a few regular doctors, this is the all-volunteer clinic of Dr. Maliheh Malekzadeh, which receives donations of supplies and delivers a comprehensive range of services: labs, prescriptions and specialists. To qualify, a patient must be below a specified income level-most are-because Utah’s uninsured families make just a little too much for Medicaid, yet too little to pay a $200 copay to a doctor.

Here’s the kicker. Wait times can compete with- or in some cases beat-insured clinics down town. Volunteers are the first ones to arrive. Book a novel, or…bring patience, because triage goes to levels of urgency, not who arrived first.

Income verification and Utah residence are typically required. Bring pay stubs. Bring a lease or a utility bill.

Do not bring the necessary documentation and you will be turned away.

It is heartbreaking, but the clinics rely on grants and donations rather than disposable income.

A quick plug for dental care. Community dental programs at the University of Utah work with multiple free clinics providing extractions, fillings and even cleaning for those who haven’t been to a dentist in ages. Toothaches don’t wait for enrollment periods, and neither do programs like these.

Volunteers are what keep this going. Retired MDs. Nursing students doing clinical hours.

Interpreters able to translate from our native language to the patient for our Spanish-speaking and refugee patients.