A Personal Post

Many Americans may not be aware of how much of a rip-off medical care has become. Oh sure, you've paid cursory attention to the news, the latest Michael Moore movie, and the debate being proposed by Presidential candidates of both parties. Some of you have even paid attention to the arguments for and against single-payer universal health care coverage. Still, you haven't been presented with a compelling real-world, concrete example of the Highway Robbery and legalized thievery that is our health care system. Decry universal coverage if you wish, but instead of talking about how expanded government in any form is anathema and how much of a financial drain such an endeavor would be, what would you do instead?

I'm tired of people who criticize universal health care but don't propose a better solution. I instead wish you to contemplate my own story.

This way you can't say that you don't KNOW someone whose life has been directly affected, and affected for the worst.

I would like to take a break from seemingly abstract political posturing to take the opportunity to show how for-profit health care has affected my life. I am Caucasian, twenty-six years old, college-educated, raised solidly middle class, so there's no reason, readership, why you should think of me in terms as some impoverished person who lives in a world totally foreign to your own. I am not a third-world resident living in a hut. I do not reside in a trailer. I was not sold for crack as an infant.

For-Profit Health Care

1. Ambulance Ride- $750. This includes $5 per MILE surcharge.
2. One ER Visit- $1,300
3. One DAY of Hospitalization- $3,000
4. Routine blood work- $750
5. Prescription drug bill, per MONTH- $2,200

I cannot pay these bills. Nothing gives me more satisfaction than to tell smarmy bill collectors that they will not likely be receiving payment at any point this century. I even make a point to tell them point-blank that I know they're only doing their job, but have they contemplated their role in this sort of exploitive racket? Are they aware that they are doing Satan's work? Most of them can't hang up the phone quickly enough.

Dear Medical Insurance Companies Bigwigs, Pharmaceutical CEOs, and Owners of Hospitals,

How do you sleep at night? Does it not bother you how many peoples' lives you have ruined over the years? Do you ever ponder how many children go without necessary medical coverage because their parents simply can't afford it? Do you know how many bankruptcies you have contributed to over the years? Do you care? Or are you raking in the big bucks and delighting as your stock goes up a tenth of a percent?

Thanks to an illness I did nothing to cause and was born with, I have horrific credit. I've had some of the best medical care in the world, and I have the bills to show for it.

Imagine if everyday items cost as much.

If Everyday Items Cost as Much as Routine Health Care Procedures

1. One gallon of gasoline- $10
2. One loaf of bread- $8
3. Newspaper- $6.50
4. New automobile- $275,000
5. A month's rent in Southern California- $20,000

Studies have shown that many homeless people, drug addicts, and criminals are mentally ill and/or have massive personality disorders. Imagine if these people had access to quality medical coverage or adequate sessions with a qualified therapist. I doubt they'd be roaming the street babbling to themselves, contemplating their next fix, or scheming up their latest illegal action.

You don't think of things in such terms, of course. No, you are a red-blooded American who wants those vermin off your streets. Lock 'em up and throw away the key, you say. Three-strikes and you're-out, you say. Not in my community, you say. I can see you locking the doors to your house right now, just to make sure. You have four sets of dead-bolts and love the musical sound they make as you turn them. Makes you feel secure.