Some Americans pawn jewelry to pay for medical care

I thought I would have a break from diary writing today.

Then my phone rang.

It was my dear, heroic friend the surgeon and oncologist.

He said to me, "Eve, what would you sell to pay for medical care?"

He didn't give me a chance to answer. I knew from his voice this was going to be bad.

"I have a patient who is selling her engagement ring today to pay for chemotherapy."

I was quite speechless, to say the least. It had never occurred to me that Americans are going to pawn shops and selling pieces of their lives in order to stay alive.

What indeed are Americans selling to pay for medical care. Why is the corruption-ridden, for-profit, Murder by Spreadsheet insurance industry allowed to pick and chose and decide who will live and who will die? This is called practicing medicine without a license.

Why do these predatory companies take our premium payments month after month, year after year, then deny us care and abandon us when we get sick?

So tell us, bear witness, if you will. Have you sold something precious to pay for healthcare? Has a friend? A relative?

Or instead, have your friends and relatives been forced to file for bankruptcy?

Or, have they put medical expenses on already overburdened credit cards?

Or, worst of all, have they just given up?

In the richest country on the planet.

My other incidental thought of the day involves presidential politics and goes something like this.

Some felt when I wrote a diary a week or so ago complimenting John Edwards on announcing his healthcare plan that I was someone backing away from full support for single-payer healthcare.  This could not be further from the truth.

I was giving John Edwards a pat on the back for simply articulating a plan.

But there seems to me a far more significant question which we must make all the Democratic presidential candidates answer. Why are you asking the American people to entrust their healthcare to criminal for-profit health insurance organizations?

Frankly, this makes no sense. Is this all you can offer the American people because the health insurance industry in the United States is so powerful?

Because your campaigns are so infused with blood-soaked health insurance industry campaign contributions? And make no mistake, this is the meaning of blood money.

Allow me to make a proposal. Stand with with the American people and demand that the Congress of the United States hold hearings. Demand sworn testimony from the CEOs of all the major for-profit insurance companies in the United States.

Then, once the American people know the true motivations of this industry, ask us again whether we should entrust our health and the health of our loved ones to criminal organizations.

But first tell us why this is all that you are offering us?