Healthcare is hard to come by

"...reforming health care is a moral obligation, and ... the responsibility to heal the sick is at the heart of every faith tradition and is required for a civilized society..." - Peter Dreier and Marshall Ganz, The Washington Post

Think: If you have been prescribed a drug for any condition, let alone hospitalized, in the last ten years, it is next to impossible to get individual health insurance. Many of the uninsured are people with pre-existing conditions who have been rejected by the insurance conglomerates and cannot afford COBRA or other state alternatives. How is this their fault?

More and more people are losing their jobs, and along with that their health insurance. The uninsured inevitably will wait to seek care until their condition merits a visit to the emergency room. As more emergency care is given and the recipients go into bankruptcy instead of paying for their care, hospitals and doctors are not paid for their services.

Emergency rooms don't give care based on insurance - the triage is based on the seriousness of what is in front of them. Good luck to the insured with a fresh laceration that needs stitches. The uninsured with the neglected laceration that might require an amputation gets first dibs.

What is wrong with the people who claim that it's the fault of the uninsured that they are asthmatic or diabetic or, worse yet, a parent of a child with leukemia? Many of these people call themselves Christians. Shame on them. It's sickening.

When COBRA ran out and I remained self-employed, I was rejected by three insurance companies for coverage due to pre-existing conditions. This forced me to abandon my promising freelance career and search for a less rewarding, low-wage job that offered health insurance. In a nutshell, my American Dream was put to an abrupt halt. For six months I was uninsured, and it was terrifying. I treated a urinary tract infection with cranberry supplements for three weeks until I got a fever and realized my only option was to see a doctor. I paid more than $400 for the doctor visit and prescription. And I live in Kansas.

If my fellow citizens in this country have become so self-absorbed that they refuse to consider the right to seek affordable health care by their neighbors, the people who serve their coffee, even the people they sit next to in church, then shame on them.

Worse yet: The lies that are propagated by "mainstream" conservative media like Fox News is, in and of itself, terrorism. Insidious hints that socialized health care is associated with Communism, and even the Nazi party, have stirred this country into a terrified frenzy that Al Quaeda could only wish for.

Compassion is priceless. Apparently it's hard to come by these days. Yes, taking care of the people around you comes with a price. It's a small price to pay in the end.