This all comes down to one basic question. Is quality health care a right or a privilege? If we agree that every American is entitled to quality health care then we need to completely reinvent our system to a single payer type system. Call it whatever you like, but that is the only real way to make it a right and not a privilege. As it stands now, if you get sick with cancer or one of many other serious illnesses, if you have insurance and money then your chances of survival are much better then those who don't. Money should not be the reason for someone to die or to suffer and yet those on the right think that our current for profit system just needs to be tweaked.

Just last year my father was diagnosed with lung cancer. He had the money to get the best of care and now a year later he is free from cancer. It cost him about everything he had and now instead of being able to retire now that he turned 65 he has to continue to work. But at least he is still here and will be for some time to come. Now, if he was not able to cover the cost of the treatments and medications, there is a good chance I would be talking about my later father.

Private insurance companies are not there to provide quality health care. Their sole purpose is to turn a profit for their stock holders. I don't care what fancy slogans and advertising they produce, the bottom line is to make a profit, not to do everything possible to save a life. Even those with the so called best insurance out there do not realize or even think about is this: If you get sick and have to receive a lot of procedures and medications there is a good possibility that you will find yourself with very expensive bills that the patient is required to pay. For example, you get a surgical procedure that has a total bill of $75,000. In most cases the patient is responsible for 20% of the bill. That means that even with insurance you are still out of pocket $15,000! I'll bet that most all people with insurance never think about that possibility and it only hits home when it actually happens to them. That is one of the reasons why so many people are forced to file bankruptcy for medical bills.

Another false premise is that the poor are the ones who are affected the most. Actually those people are usually covered by Medicaid. Medicaid coverage is better then most private insurance in most cases as the co-pays are small and there is no 80/20 split in cost. It is the middle class that is hit the worst as they are the ones who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid and too little to be able to afford the cost of private insurance. Those that can afford the insurance find that they do not have the money left to cover their 20% of the bill plus the deductible. When a basic doctors visit can run from $80 to over $100 plus any tests that may be required, out of pocket expense can begin to grow rather fast.

So, do we think it is a right or privilege to get quality health care? If it is a right then the answer should be simple. Medicare for all or something similar. If not, then keep on doing what we are doing now.