I don't think I go one day without reading or hearing about someone facing medical issues, and not having adequate health insurance. Cancer patients who can't afford their treatment, coverage denied for people with insurance, uninsured kids, and people who are working hard to support their families, and still don't have health insurance.

Just the other day on my Women 4 Hope blog...I had a young man comment about being told he had sleep apnea, and that he needed a special device to help him breath at night or he could die. Oddly, his insurance company won't cover the cost of this piece of equipment. How can that be? This young man has resourcefully started a blog in hopes to find a used machine, or raise enough money to purchase a new one.

So, how is it...That we are the richest country in the world, but we can't afford to make sure our own citizens have quality affordable health insurance? This is actually a question I intend to pose to the presidential candidates at the10 Questions project, later this weekend (I'll post the video here in comments, once I have it ready).

It's beginning to appear that...Only the wealthy, and most poverty stricken people in this country are guaranteed health care. If you are not at one extreme or the other, your life could very well be on the line. That just doesn't seem right? Yet, it is the reality for many people.

I didn't see the movie SICKO, but I have heard Michael Moore speak of his belief that the insurance companies (especialy HMOs), are the main problem in this healthcare crisis we are facing. And I agree. Of course insurance companies need to be profitable, but over the last 20 years or so, they have really began a systematic pillaging of the American people. HMOs are said to be "managed healthcare", but unfortunately the only thing they are doing a good job at managing, is their shareholders money.

These insurance companies have no vested interest in the actual health of the customers they "serve" (I use that word lightly), and actually make their own rules, while having no accountability at all. At the very least, HMOs should change their name to reflect what they really are...PMHDs (Profit Making Health Dictators).

Here in American we have private insurance companies. We have HMO’s. We have Medicare and Medicaid. If you have a good job, or over the age of 65 (I think it’s 65 now but I could be mistaken… I mean they keep raising it an all…) or completely poor and nearly on the streets, then you qualify for one of the following. However, if you have a job that pays shit and don’t give you proper benefits, or work off the books, or your company doesn’t provide heath coverage or you have pre-existing conditions that aren’t covered or one of the other number of loopholes that these companies have then, well, you are pretty much S.O.L . That’s scary. -- read full post at Define Your World

And, with the seriousness of eating disorders among our young girls, this post was particularly disturbing...

One of the most pivotal moments in my eating disorder happened when I sought treatment in December 2003. It was the first time I actually believed I would die from my illness and knew I needed full-time professional help. I needed inpatient treatment.

It should have been a turning point for the better. Instead, my eating disorder got much worse. I never received the help I needed.

It wasn’t because I backed out at the last minute. I wasn’t resisting treatment at my family’s insistence, either. I simply couldn’t afford treatment when my insurance denied me coverage.

Here’s what happened. -- read full post from Disordered Times

Here is an example of how the controversy over the SCHIP program, is hitting home for one California mother. And, this is a story being echoed across the country...

I go through the state program for my daughter’s health insurance. Here in California it is called Healthy Families. Being self employed I have no insurance for myself, so given the fact that my income isn’t that much (yet x;) ) I qualify for Healthy Families for my daughter.

So with all this hub bub about children’s insurance in the news I didn’t realize it was going to affect us. I mean HELLO MCFLY. Can you believe how dumb I was not to realized they were talking about US? So when I finally connected the dots I got stressed out and frustrated. -- read full article at Saint Amy Jane

Are the uninsured just lazy people who don't have jobs? I think we all know by now, that that is just the furthest thing from the truth.

Forty-seven million Americans, or 16% of our population is uninsured.

Over 8 out of every 10 uninsured person is from a working family. (70% of those are from families where one or more are working a full-time job, and 11% from families working part-time jobs). These are NOT lazy people who just want a "free ride", these are hard working American families.

Remember during last year's gubernatorial debate when Dick DeVos said, "The best way to get health care is to get a job?" Voters across the state laughed about that one all the way to the election booth (where they soundly voted against him), so this article from Reuters won't be a surprise to them.

The number of Americans lacking health insurance rose by nearly 8.6 million to 47 million from 2000 to 2006, with children and workers from every income level losing coverage, a new report said on Thursday.
-- read full post at Stone Soup Musings

A couple of weeks ago the New York Post posted an op-ed piece about the recently expired SCHIP bill.

This is what they printed:

Yet SCHIP is senseless. Like its much larger sibling, Medicaid, the program forces taxpayers to send their money to Washington so that Congress can send it back to state governments with strings attached. Both programs force taxpayers to subsidize people who don't need help, discourage low-income families from climbing the economic ladder - and make private insurance more expensive for everyone else.
Well, put that way, I wouldn't vote for it either! But of course, like most propaganda, it's mostly wrong with a slight garnish of fact. -- read full post at Chicago Moms Blog

Recently I've written on this topic...

Breast Cancer and the Healthcare Crisis: What is your life worth? and Universal Healtcare: The Health and Wellness of Our Entire Country is at stake

Other BlogHer Contributing Editors that have also written about the Healthcare Crisis...

Kim Pearson

Morra Aarons

Dana Tuszke

Denise

What do you think about all of this? How will this healthcare crisis end? Will it? Do you think once we have a new president in the white house, that this issue will be addressed and resolved? What do you think about "universal healthcare? What candidate do you think, is best suited for the job, of making sure that we have quality and affordable healthcare for all?

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
also at CatherineBlogs.com and The Political Voices of Women