Healthcare in America, What Obama really needs to do...

I've had this blog on park for well over a year and have finally decided to take the plunge. This has been a trying time for me, full of upheaval. It seems that the common thread has been one of health. First I had a ruptured appendix that nearly killed me, (something I'm still recovering from,) and that was followed by a bout of Bells Palsy, which has been going on for six weeks now!

For those of you not familiar with Bells Palsy, it is a painful disease that causes paralysis to one side of the face. It usually subsides after a few weeks, but no such luck for me. I am however, finally able to mostly close my right eye, so I'm not complaining... too much. I wrote an article for associated content that explains Bells Palsy in much greater detail and how to live with the disease. You can read it here.

It seemed a no brainer to begin this blog with the so-called healthcare debate that is currently going on in America.

We the people, need universal healthcare. It's really that simple. The United States is the only industrialized nation that does not have free / affordable healthcare in the world. Think about that for a minute. Canada, The UK, France, Germany, Japan, the list could go on and on. For them healthcare is a basic human right, and it should be for Americans as well.

I have no love for insurance companies. Full disclosure here folks. I was involved in a serious car accident in my teens. The insurance companies did everything they could to not take care of me and make sure I was healed. I had to take them to court to pay the medical bills. Keep in mind I was a passenger in the car accident. To this day I still have medical problems resulting from that accident. One of which pretty much killed my music career a few years ago, when I lost feeling and dexterity in one of my hands. I need a $30,000 operation to correct the problem, but since it is a "pre-existing condition" no insurance company will pay for it. Thankfully it's not life threatening, but it is life-changing.

When I had the ruptured appendix, I had health insurance. The laparoscopic operation and a week in the hospital cost over $60,000.  To me that is more than a little unreasonable, don't you think?

The fact is healthcare does not need to cost so much. The insurance companies should not be deciding what is best for my health, that is my Doctor's job. Insurance companies are in the business of making money, they are for profit. They are profiting off of our sickness which is truly disgusting. They decide what they will and will not pay for, and they ultimately decide what procedures we will or will not have. Again, isn't that our Doctor's job?

I would love to sit here and tell you all about Obama's healthcare plan, how it will fix everything. But I can't, because there is no plan yet. It's still in the works, and with each underhanded bait and switch ploy, we are losing things that are in our best interest.

I have to believe that debates raging on in town hall meetings are setups. People paid to go in there and carry on about the government taking care of and paying for healthcare. How is that a bad thing? The government should pay for healthcare, for every American citizen.

Rumor Control: There are no death panels, nor will there ever be Death Panels under the Obama Plan. Illegal immigrants will not be covered under the new healthcare plan either. People seem to think that the government will decide what doctors we can see, and what kind of healthcare we would get. We can still pick our doctors and our coverage with the Obama plan. Even if that rumor was true, that is exactly what the for-profit insurance companies do. I for one would rather have the government in charge of my health as opposed to an insurance company. Just look at how much the government is willing to spend on well...everything. Get my point?

I know I'm rambling on and on. Here is the bottom line: We need universal healthcare in America.

We should have a single payer system, which means the single payer is the government, paying for everything. It looks like that is off the table now, thanks to insurance and pharmaceutical companies whose agents turned the public against such an obviously smart and good thing for the general people.

Heal the sick and help the suffering, isn't that what Christ preached? Healthcare for all is the right choice, the decent choice; it is the good Christian thing to do.

We as a nation, need to the government to step in, control costs, and make sure that no one is denied access to health care based on their ability to pay for it. It happens everyday in America, it's happening to me, and pray it doesn't happen to you.

I strongly suggest that you take pen to paper and put pressure on your Senators and Representativies. Let them know that you want affordable healthcare, and that they should be working for you, not the insurance companies.