18,314 Americans die each year for a lack of health care. [View All]

THIS IS IMMORAL.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0522-05.htm

"The estimated death toll includes about 1,400 people with high blood pressure, 400 to 600 with breast cancer and 1,500 diagnosed with HIV."

This is America. I grew up hearing about how this is "the greatest country on earth." I've always heard this is the richest nation in the world.

So does the richest (is that still true?), greatest nation on earth let its citizens die of treatable illnesses? Do we just turn our backs? Is that what America is about?

"Uninsured people with colon or breast cancer face a 50% higher risk of death.

Uninsured trauma victims are less likely to be admitted to the hospital, receive the full range of needed services, and are 37% more likely to die of their injuries.

Being uninsured also magnifies the risk of death and disability for chronically sick and mentally ill patients, poor people and minorities, who disproportionately lack access to medical care..."

I've been doing a lot of research into this problem since I first suggested a march on Washington of the medically uninsured and underinsured the other day. (Some day, I'll sleep again.) I've talked to the research associate at PNHP (Physicians for a National Healthcare Program) today and learned they are strongly in favor of HR 676--The National Health Insurance Bill, which is a single-payer plan. Conyers is sponsoring it and is asking for more sponsors. (www.pnhp.org) I urge you to contact your representatives in Congress to support this plan.

I've read enough solid plans on different sites to realize this idea that it's too hard or can't be done is nothing but a LIE. The plan that PNHP proposes, for example, would not only take care of the problem, but would be cost-effective, as well. Most people don't realize the interconnectedness of this problem: those who are uninsured and underinsured end up at your already overworked/underfunded county hospitals and guess who pays more in taxes because of it? ALL OF US. And that's just one way it affects us all.

So this isn't about it not being possible. We are one of the last industrialized countries to let our citizens lead lives in pain and die because of a lack of health care. (High blood pressure??? Are you kidding me with that? 1,400 Americans each year die from high blood pressure SIMPLY because they do not have health insurance and probably beause they cannot afford the blood pressure meds.)

What this IS about:

1. The hold the insurance and pharma industry lobbies have on Congress. They are industries--they do not want to give up that profit, that's the nature of an industry. But they are profiting at the expense, literally, of human lives.

2. A lack of understanding/information about this problem on the part of everyday people. Too many think nothing can be done. Too many are completely unaware about HOW many people this affects. Too many who have health insurance think it doesn't affect them (it does, in many different ways). Too many who don't have insurance are too busy trying to deal with chronic pain/chronic illnesses to even think about how to solve this problem.

PNHP directed me to an organization for citizens which has the same goals as they do: The Campaign for a National Health Program Now! (http://www.cnhpnow.org)

I've put in a call to them to see if they are interested in joining us in this march (still in the early planning stages, for anyone interested, but if you'd like to spread the word to your state forum, PLEASE DO. We need all the help we can get....).

This cannot stand. Imagine a country in which people could go to the doctor whenever they were sick, a country in which people didn't have to decide between food or medication that week, a country in which kids didn't miss 1/4 of the school year because of untreated illnesses.

Right now, that country isn't America.