After waiting six hours in a hospital, a man is told he must go to a clinic across town because the hospital will not treat his injury.
The compounding cost of prescription medications means a woman must pick and choose what medicines she will and will not receive.
A student is forced to withdraw from college because he needs to work full time in order to pay off debt created by an expensive surgical procedure.
Illness and injury are a part of life but they do not need to ruin it.
An estimated 46 million individuals in this country live without health insurance at any given moment, and 18,000 die every year as a direct result, according to a 2007 survey by the U.S. Census Bureau. Of those millions of Americans lacking health insurance, 10 percent are between the ages of 18 and 24.
Another survey conducted two years earlier, estimated 1.1 million Pennsylvanians are without health insurance, with 12,500 residing in Delaware County.
I am not an expert on the intricacies of our nation’s healthcare system, and therefore feel unqualified to advocate socialized over privatized medicine, or one plan over another, but I am outraged that in a nation as resourceful as the United States millions are still living without minimal healthcare coverage.
Numerous politicians in the past have pushed for reform, but it should never have reached the point that panic over our nation’s greatest economic crisis could serve as the rally cry for substantial changes.
For many Americans this is simply too little too late.
The White House’s $634 million commitment to healthcare reform was discussed during one of a series of public forums on healthcare, at which President Barack Obama articulated his intentions to cut health care costs and guarantee coverage for every American within the year.
The president has implored Congress and the American people to speak their peace and contribute to a solution, but is this a political strategy or a cry of desperation, and what can be done while we wait for a solution?
Meanwhile, the Census Bureau reports the increasing number of uninsured Americans keeps pace at a national average of 1.4 million each year.
According to Erin Roth of the American Medical Student Association, the physical, emotional and financial well being of those lacking healthcare reaches beyond personal risk. Roth reported the 80 percent of America's unisured citizens have fulltime employment - dispelling the myth that most uninsured individuals are unemployed, but they are regarded as being low-income, or earning less than $38,000 a year.
The AMSA reports those without insurance are three times more likely to forgo treatment of major and chronic conditions.
No matter what solution one may suggest to counter current medical costs, there will still be a portion of the population that cannot afford or qualify for coverage.
Some Americans argue if people cannot afford insurance then they should not receive insurance - simple as that.
Honestly, I can not think of a colder and less humane assertion. If our nation’s current situation can teach us anything, it is that the economy can not be relied upon to settle everything as a Darwinian judge and jury.
Argue for any plan or policy, but no progress can occur if we automatically assume that some people just don’t deserve the same treatment as the rest of us.
While the task of protecting our health is daunting for the individual and the nation, there are those who want to help. A number of private and public programs that offer free or low-cost medical services include local clinics and government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.
However, these programs already serve more than 80 million Americans, according to the Census Bureau. It is hard to believe that these options, even with improvements and expansions, could meet the needs of the uninsured and underinsured population in the near future.
A fundamental questions at the heart of the debate, whether the argument is for socialized or commercial care, is: Do we believe in everyone’s right to live and live well?
