SUDBURY - Like the others across the state who wait in line at free health clinics, Kevin Saaristo never thought he’d be uninsured and relying on volunteer doctors for his family’s medical care.

“Thank goodness for these people,” he said of the staff, who see patients each Tuesday night inside the Congregation Beth El synagogue in Sudbury. “We’ve fallen through” the cracks, said Saaristo, 55, a Boxboro resident who came with his 17-year-old daughter, who was on crutches. “I’m a union carpenter and there’s not a lot of action. It’s a down economy.”