The need for healthcare reform - in person

I'm a pretty healthy person for my ripe old age of 43. Now, that's not to say I lead a healthy lifestyle, the remnants of a grilled cheese sandwich and fries that I just devoured for lunch are a testimony to it. What I really mean is that my lifestyle has not manifested in a way that requires medical attention... yet.

So, I go in for my annual physical and requisite mammogram (Screw the recent panel recommendations, I like my breasts too much to ignore them) every year, and once in a while, I go into urgent care because I slice my hand open doing a volunteer project. In other words, I'm paying a lot for my little routine exam, but that's OK, I believe in everybody doing their share for the common good.

Alas, aside from whipping out my checkbook yesterday, I couldn't really do my share. I was sitting in the packed waiting area chair, looking forward to the the annual boob squishing and visit by the cold speculum, and in the twenty minutes I waited, two separate families walked away without seeing a doctor because they didn't have insurance and couldn't afford it.

These were clearly people caught in the middle - unemployed, couldn't afford COBRA or private insurance, and didn't have the cash resources to pay for a visit. So they left without treatment.

I am horrified for the parents who can't offer relief to their sick children. One little boy was howling, holding his ear... the other was a teenage boy who was coughing up a lung. I was very saddened, and felt bad for the clinic administrators who had to refuse them, the parents, and the kids.

We need something to change and we need it now. We should put politics aside and leave stupid wedge issues out of the discussion. True patriots would see the country slowing sinking to it's needs because of health care. Our nation's position as a world leader in industry, democracy and technology has been jeopardized by the deficit hawks who aren't interested in paying for the foundation our citizenship depends on - our health.