Sick, Sick, Sick. Health Care in America

This is an article that looks at individuals in America and studies the health care issue anecdotally. The problem with the debate is that there is so much emotion involved when someone gets sick and needs treatment. Nobody wants anyone to get sick and need care. When someone does get sick, everyone wants them to get better. The question is, who's responsibility is it to pay for the care to make people better? I would say it is the individual and family other than a safety net for those most in need and unable to provide for themselves. But this article is interesting as it looks at health care data from individual cases. Enjoy the article.

Sick, Sick, Sick. Health Care in America

By: Tula Connell

Dorene, a cancer survivor in Oregon, can't afford health insurance, so she takes part in what she calls "faith-based health care"—she prays she won't get sick.

Barbara's son spent a year in Iraq after enlisting in the National Guard. It was the only way he could get health insurance for his wife.

In New York, Antonius can't afford health care and never sees a doctor. And if he gets a serious illness?

I couldn't get care—I would just have to die—in the richest country in the world, with great health care, I'd have no help. Does that seem right?

Unfortunately, many politicians would not answer "No" to Antonius' question. So in January, we at the AFL-CIO, in partnership with our community affiliate, Working America, launched an online health care survey to encourage people to tell their stories and provide data that we plan to present to 2008 candidates at all levels. Over seven weeks, more than 26,000 people took the survey (and it was long), and nearly 7,500, like Dorene, Barbara and Antonius, took time to describe their personal experiences with the U.S. health care system.

Continue reading the story here.