Health - a right or a priviledge

I learned of a death yesterday that need not have happened. Much is being debated at this time about health care in America. I grew up in England where one never had to think about whether one could go to the doctor or afford medication. In California where I live now, the Governor is proposing to cut the State Healthy Families program that provides health care to those who fall in the gap between Medicaid and working for an employer who cannot afford to provide medical insurance for his employees. Healthy Families provides low cost insurance for thousands of hard working families.

The person that died yesterday had insurance. She had been sick for a year with an ear problem that was never treated correctly. This person had clawed her way back from drug addiction and mental illness to regain her nurse's license and work again in the field that she loved, only to die because of an incompetent, red-tape driven, pharmaceutical controlled system. There has to be a better way.

I think we have become too greedy and self-centered in this country to the point that if we're OK then damn everyone else. What has happened to us? Where is the compassion? This country claims to be, by and large, a Christian one. Did not Christ tell his followers that if they had two coats then give one to the person who has none? No-one in this country should have to choose between food or heat, heat or medicine, lights or food. We are all over the globe fighting wars for other people who don't even want us there, and not fighting for peace in countries where genocide is a common occurrence.

I do not claim to have the answers, but just as a small child knows when things are fair or not, I know that our approach is not right, it is not Christian, it is not what Mother Teresa, Ghandi or the Dalai Lama would teach. We admire these people and yet if we all had just an ounce of their worldly compassion, no-one in this country would die needlessly.

Rest in Peace Suzanne.