I know your feeling. I just graduated college, moved to DC a little over a week ago, and started a paid internship at a quite awesome non-profit, but internships don't provide health insurance. I've been shopping around the pharmacies here to find the one that can fill my high blood pressure medication for the cheapest, and it hasn't been easy. Of course, I have not looked for a local PCP yet, since I have no insurance, and very little money. For my brother, who has Crohn's disease, it's far worse, and he owes well over $10,000 in medical bills that he can never pay, and is in fact now on Social Security Disability, along with my mom. Our nation's healthcare cannot even be called that, it's nothing but a fucking vampire that sucks out your money for all you're worth. A couple months ago, I was staying at a hostel down in Miami for a renewable energy conference I was attending, and I started talking with a tourist from Sweden while I had nothing to do. He said his greatest fear was breaking a bone while he was in America, and thus having to go to a hospital and pay an outrageous sum for treatment. Imagine that, being in Miami, and being scared not of being shot, robbed, or otherwise a victim of crime, but instead a victim of an accident, and being forced to seek treatment for it. How much longer is this shit going to continue?

USA---"spread the pain." Millions upon millions of anonymous griefs.

-30-

I'm lucky. Last year I lost half my respiratory system due to paralysis of my left diaphragm. The damage was probably due to an impinged phrenic nerve, but since the impingement was not relieved within the first few months, the condition is now permanent. I am retired, so I did not lose work time. I have Medicare, so apart from a few hundred dollars in co-pays, the many thousands of dollars in CT and MRI scans and specialist visits were borne by the government - by all of you. My PCP scratched his head and dutifully referred me to one specialist after another: a pulmonologist, two neurologists, three neurosurgeons, each of whom dutifully gave me 17 minutes of their time, scratching their heads and jotting down reimbursement codes. As the insurance reports came in the mail, I added up the unbelievable cost of this nothingburger. Thousands of dollars changed hands as I sat there waiting for medical intervention that never arrived. Not one diagnosis, not one minute of treatment of any kind. Not one referral to a better specialist or skilled treatment facility. I proactively scoured the e-medicine web sites, solicited referrals from friends and doctors, demanded a visit to Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix. I filled out innumerable forms on innumerable clipboards. 17 minutes is the recommended time for an average patient visit by the insurance companies who administer our health care. Unlike auto mechanics, doctors who give up after 17 minutes earn just as much money as doctors who do not. Finally I joined our "finest health care system on earth" and gave up. Anybody who can't figure out why the American health care is so expensive and so utterly dysfunctional is simply not paying attention. We need to throw the insurance industry and 9/10 of our doctors in the trash. But do you know what we are going to do instead? We're going to fiddle with the system as though there were something in it worth preserving, and throw ourselves in the trash.

Donna I have been reading your articles for some time. Wheil I am Canadian and have no real stake in the battle that goes on down there, I really wish your country gets what people like yourself are fighting so hard to get.

I believe you are truly a compassionate person. I do not really know you but from reading your articles I have to say I both like and respect you.

Good luck and Blessings to you.

My brother could never get health insurance because of a heart defect he had from birth. My friend could not change her health insurance because of being on an anti-depressant for 5 months. No one else will insure her now. Another friend dropped his insurance after being successfully treated for skin cancer. What a mistake that was, as now he is uninsurable for the rest of his life.

And yet when you bring up universal health care to conservatives they scream socialism! By the way, the man with skin cancer and no insurance is a staunch conservative.

With the unemployment statistics on the rise one approach would be to speak loud and clear about the dignity of going on food stamps and medicaid due to PTSD from the trauma of waking up to the visciousness of illegal wars, theft by paper on wall st. When 40% of the population finally shudders in a 'wu wei' affirmation of life, maybe the seesaw will shift of its own weight. - there would be no option other than to confirm single-payer.

In East Tennessee what is being sold to the people is nothing near what advertisments say as compared to what they really say on court record is their acceptable standards of health care. http://www.wisecountyissues.com Even the state of Tennessee ( Randi Blair, E.TN office of the hospital licensure board ) told me that "horrifying" health care is within the parimeters of The Acceptable Standards of Health care in their state by their hospitals, health department, consumer affairs board, and governor. (Virginia too) Profit Care trumps Patient Care in E. TN. Affordable health care won't do much good unless we demand a higher standard of quality care, preventative care, clean hospitals and nursing homes. MRSA SHOULD NOT BE IN OUR COMMUNITIES AND BREEDING IN AMERICAS EMERGENCY ROOMS.

That decision making process you describe is very familiar to me. Fortunately my employer offered an HSA this year, so I can at least be confident that my medical expenses are going to be a fixed price this year. What a relief to know I won't spend more than $10,000 out of pocket for health care this year.

Donna Smith:you may have had a warning,temporary paralysis. (I know you know that, but others may not.)

Any specific suggestions for what people can do in the process for getting single-payer?

well, capitalism may be bad. but socialism doesn't work, does it?

why do the rulers fine and imprison us for going to cuba?

Universal health care can only come to the U.S. when every single corporation realizes what automakers like Toyota realized: that it's far cheaper and less risky to set up shop in Canada, where they don't have the burden of private health insurance for basic coverage. Since health insurance for workers and retirees (not the future retirees - they're going to be hung out to dry) is the largest single extra financial burden on the auto industry, perhaps they can hold their ultra-capitalist snouts and accept the fact that universal public health care will remove a huge obstacle to their survival.

Of course, HMO's, private hospitals, insurance companies and other similar corporate leeches are THE one and only obstacle. And they keep pouring money into the coffers of every lawmaker in the US, not the least of them Daschle, who's now the health care "czar" (one of Mr.O's funniest appointments).
So it's up to the masses of USAmericans to find the courage to stand up to them all and to the politicians: sit in, die in, shame them, resort to what the Argentines do and they call "escraches" (shaming individuals publicly with massive demonstrations outside their homes) or whatever it takes. The worst outcome would be that everyone will be rounded up as terrorists and shipped to prison with free basic health care. At least the seed for action will have been sown and future generations will succeed. But inaction now won't do anyone any good in the long run.
Good luck, neighbours!

Sioux Rose

DONNA: I notice you sometimes enter our forum. I wanted to pose a suggestion. Sometimes a nerve is pinched and this can lead to a bit of paralysis. I wonder if you'd consider a chiropractic adjustment just in case? A nerve pinched over the course of time can lead to degeneration of the area that's not being properly nurtured. So many people, up until recently, women especially, were so busy taking care of everyone else, they neglected their own needs. I know you posed a poignant piece on CD close to the holidays which suggested that you were facing financial difficulties, but IF you could afford a periodic massage, that would be helpful to you, too. I have no medical insurance and rely on these alternative therapies which thus far have served me well. Given all the evidence of your article, even if I could afford medical insurance, I shudder to think I'd be giving bureaucrats a huge percentage of my income so that THEY can play King Solomon in determining whether or not I would be worthy of care if and when a circumstance ensued requiring it.

Someone should remind this author that Obama has made his intentions about single payer crystal clear. He isn't giving the idea a high priority and is in fact against it. Keep hoping but take a look at who's been paying and controlling his candidacy and will do the same to his presidency.

And if the author really took healthcare seriously, she'd be putting pressure on Obama to get rid of the ban on Cannabis and let that plant compete in the market so that America can recover its brain cells and improve its thinking and standing power all over again.

If any meaningful reform is proposed by Obama the insurance companies will spend hundreds of millions,if not into the billions,on a tv campaign similar to was it Ted and Louise?
How fulfilling it must be to work for an ad agency putting out such propaganda that needlessly harms millions of your fellow citizens.

Single-payer health care, as Canada has, costs each person half as much as for-profit health care, as the USA has. Plus, all demographic health care measures (longevity, infant survival, cancer survival, etc.) get better. Plus, once governments are responsible for hospital medical services, they invest in cost-effective preventative medicine services, like inoculations, exercise programs, anti-smoking campaigns, clean syringes, etc. But, the US population would much rather make war in other nations, and give Israel money and weapons in order to kill Palestinians and steal their land. Unfortunately, you cannot afford both. At some point, the US population should politely ask that the US government serve their interests rather than serve the interests of religious fanatics building settlements outside their national boundaries and committing war crimes.

How many times do you stupid slaves have to be told?

Wake up and rise up.

In a related area,let me inform those who have no knowledge of this aspect of Social Security.
Depending on which administration is in power and how much they want to slice from benefits,applicants[myself included]are unjustly denied disability on their first application and forced to fight their way through another application process[mine took nearly 3 years.Then most applicants [as I was] will be awarded benefits.But the dastardly hitch is,since the amount of benefit is calculated by one's earnings in recent years only,they are drastically less than the award would have been upon the first application.One is thus sentenced,if you will,then[as I am]to the remainder of your life on a below poverty line income.Without support of family,I would have had to try to survive in the streets with several serious illnesses.
How many in the US have been treated thusly? I'm sure they've kept an accurate count just as the phantom count of the homeless years ago.
I appreciate this website and the opportunity to vent,and hopefully inform.

I'm from Australia and we have a universal health care system here. It is called Medicare. Everything is free in the public hospital system for everyone - and we have lots of public hospitals! People can still opt to be treated in private hospitals for which they pay health insurance through the private health funds, but that is over and above the Medicare levy of 1.5% on income, which everyone has to pay. There is an upper limit of income on which the levy is paid. It is unusual here for employers to pay private health insurance. It is nearly always paid by individuals, costs around $2,000 - $2,500/year (single), and covers all private hospital admissions. It is subsidised by the Federal Government between 30% - 40% of the total cost. There is also 'extras' cover, purchased separately, which pays a percentage of dental, optical, allied heath services and many other things. Medicare also largely covers all medical costs, including X-rays, blood tests, visits to the doctor, prescription drugs, etc.
I'm here to tell you that this system really works quite well. Of course there are waiting lists for elective surgery at most public hospitals, but in an emergency people are admitted and treated straight away. Private hospitals are mostly for elective surgery, although some of the larger places have emergency departments. I have read about your system in America before and always wondered why you didn't have a system like ours, which is much less expensive to operate. It is well worth fighting for - so good luck!

Dear Friends,

New Mexico Legislature, opening on Jan 20, will consider passage of the New Mexico Health Security Act, a not-for-profit, single payer healthcare legislation. Copies of the bill and legislative studies can be seen at www.whatifyouknew-nm.com or at www.nmhealthsecurity.org .

The legislation would pool all premiums in a single fund overseen by an independent and transparent commission appointed by the legislature. One important argument in favor of the plan is the ability of NM healthcare consumers to have control and knowledge of the investments of their $Billions of dollars paid in premiums.

Could you point us to some sources of information on the financial stability of major health insurance companies servicing New Mexico, their investments and potential risks? We need to make a fact-based presentation on the relative risks of private health insurers versus the Health Security Act.

The New Mexico Health Security act has a strong possibility of passage in both our chambers. Governor Richardson has in the past openly sided with maintaining an insurance industry based system, but conditions are changing rapidly. New Mexico could be a trend-setter, as was the province of Saskatchewan in the passage of a national health plan in Canada. We would greatly appreciate any timely help you can lend.

Thank you. Sincerely,

Dan Gips