Assertions that health care reform is about sticking it to the rich is a straw man. It has no bearing on this matter. The fact is the health care system was broken and still is. Insurance companies were unregulated to the extent that they were in truth the real death panels deciding who gets coverage, who gets what medical procedure, who gets to keep their policy after people fall ill. They were free to cancel policies on a whim. They decided who lived and who died based on a single premise: their bottom line.

Tens of millions have no health insurance. Tens of millions of others have lost their insurance because they lost their jobs in the time of recession. The cost of health care in the United States is one of the highest in the world. I could go on here but you know the rest, I’m sure.

How is this acceptable to anyone regardless of their political persuasion? This is the point. As much as conservatives want to make this an issue of bigger government, it is not. It is about fiscal responsibility and respect and dignity for your fellow Americans.

Claims that allowing insurers to sell over state lines and tort refrom are the answers to fixing health care are false. They are not. This has been shown repeatedly. There is a crisis at hand and Republicans are playing politics. Health insurance lobbyists have spent a fortune in fighting reform. Ask yourself why?

I understand and respect our reader’s Libertarian views but I believe they’re misplaced when it comes to health care. If government cannot prevent a corrupt health care industry from taking advantage of Americans, then who can? Over 45,000 a year die needlessly from the current system. How does this not bother everyone? How is it that they don’t care?

You ask me about my goals? As a Canadian, I have had worries and struggles like most experience in life but health care costs have never been one of them.  Living with my American partner in Florida gives me a perspective which many don’t have.  I watch her and her family and friends living in fear of losing their jobs and in effect, their ability to cover the costs of their health care.  I hear the horror stories of many who have lost their homes and savings because they were so foolish as to get sick and require a major operation.  I’ve met people who have worked their entire lives, paid their insurance premiums in a timely basis and then, at the time they needed coverage, had it pulled away because of a preexisting condition.  These are not isolated cases.  The stories are out there in the millions for anyone willing to take the time to listen.

Is this your idea of the American Dream?

It stuns me that a country as rich as the United States deals with the health and well-being of their citizens as it does.  While life has no guarantees and it is incumbent on every individual to work hard and strive for success, the cost of health care should not be one of their concerns.  Not in this country.  Not anywhere.

I have no goal here except my respect for what this country stands for and the welfare of the people I love.  If anyone chooses to take issue with my motives, then they need to do better than that of the reader I quote above.