Winning the lottery usually correlates with five bucks for a hot dog, not with healthcare. But at the Arlington Free Clinic, which provides healthcare for those who can’t afford it, demand is so high, the clinic’s forced to hold a lottery for patients, reports WAMU.

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Letters are pulled out of a Tupperware bin–25 patients were selected that day, leaving 115 people without services back on the street, with only hopes of better luck the next day.

Abraham Haile, a recent immigrant from Africa, was not chosen.

“Well, it’s a lottery, and I’m not lucky in lottery. I don’t get it. So that’s all, eh?” Haile says.

One woman, who wished not to be named, told WAMU, she recently lost her job, and wanted to see the clinic provide services for American citizens before undocumented immigrants. But when the Patient Care and Protection Act goes into effect in 2014, about 400,000 Virginians will be added to Medicaid. They’ll no longer be eligible for care at the free clinic; meaning most of the clinic’s patients may be undocumented immigrants.

“It is so hard the way we do health care in this country. I think the patients get very frustrated. They want us to do what we can’t do. We just can’t take care of everyone,” says Executive Director Nancy Pallensen.

Aside from the Arlington Free Clinic, Fairfax County provides free healthcare services at a number of clinics in northern Virginia.

(via WAMU)