What concerns me about the current system is that it is set up to make money. Health care is a for-profit industry. Imagine if your police, libraries, and schools were for-profit. Only the crimes which were profitable would get solved and only the fortunate would be able to afford basic education. Imagine if your municipal water supply was for-profit. Imagine if our military was for-profit. Imagine if the fire department was for-profit. Only the buildings which qualified as "worth saving" would get spared from fires. Imagine your house burning down, while the fire department used their ladder truck to get a CEO's cat out of a tree because guess what, he's got a fat wad of cash and you don't. I think that's a good analogy for what happens when you allow "the market" to control who gets the privilege of "protection," be it protection from crime, protection from fire, or protection from sickness.

It's more profitable for pharmaceutical companies to sell drugs than to encourage preventative health care. Generic, affordable brands of medication are prohibited because drug companies want to protect their bottom line. It's more profitable for insurance companies to deny claims than to help people who need it. It's more profitable for these same companies to deny coverage under the guise of "pre-existing conditions" than to help a fellow human being in need. What's wrong with this system? No one, I mean no one, should be making money off of people being sick and dying. THAT'S what's wrong! Until that changes, we will be forever mired in this inhumane situation.

I will never comprehend the irrational paranoia of so many of my fellow Americans when it comes to "socialized medicine." A simple illustration: here in our country, a clinic gets paid more money the more unhealthy people come to visit it. In England, doctors receive bonuses based on how well they employ preventative medicine to actually prevent their patients from having to make visits. Now tell me which one of these is better for the people! The big myth about single payer health care is that we could never afford it. I got news: if we can afford this trillion plus dollar bailout to cover Wall Street's epic blunders, we can afford compassion for our fellow man in the form of free health care! We've just got to get our priorities straight.

I think we are in denial of the fact that socialized medicine is the most humane and equal solution to this problem. I'm not delusional enough to think that Barack is actually going to go for that idea. But I hope with all my might that he will start pushing us in that direction. The first step would be windfall taxes on all medical insurance and pharmaceutical companies. If you're making big profits, that money belongs to the sick. "Pre-existing conditions" should be made outright illegal. Fines should be imposed for the denial of valid claims. Tax codes should be changed and subsidies arranged so that preventative health is encouraged and generic brand drugs should be made available. I've known elderly people who have resorted to eating dog food because after the cost of their medicine, there is just no money left. Dog food people, dog food! Is this the UNITED States of America, or is this the Go-Screw-Yourself-I-Can-Afford-It-And-You-Can't States of America?!

I defer to the words of the Declaration of Independence:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men"

To secure your right to stay alive, government is created. To me, that means government has an intrinsic obligation to keep you alive, as best it can. We need to get back to those words. We need to treat our ailing counterparts with respect and dignity, and help them to live their lives proudly, instead of living, eating, and eventually dying, like dogs.