Disclaimer: I have absolutely no credentials to speak on the topic of health care in America except this; my family and I have recently joined the ranks of the uninsured.

GASP! NO! How does this happen?

Well this is how it happened to us. I don't work. My husband is self-employed. Once upon a time, my job provided health insurance for us. I worked for a large mid-western bank in a variety of positions of increasing responsibility. Once upon a time, I was the primary breadwinner in the family.

But with the birth of my daughter, our third child, concomitant with Brian's career beginning to take off we decided it was time for me to stay home. We could afford it, finally, and I bid farewell to pantyhose and power suits. At the time Bill was 21 months and Steve was 3 1/2 years. For the most part I haven't looked back.

Except there went our health insurance. We purchased our insurance after that with the COBRA option, and began looking for alternatives. At first it was $500 a month. In 1994. In 1995 it went up to $600 a month. A 20% increase. And ever since then it has been one pain in the ass as we have faced 20% to 40% increases every year, filled out myriad applications, hopped around switching carriers in efforts to keep the cost down.

This year it hit $1100 a month. That's $13,200 a year. Hello, not even that, because there was a $25 office copay and a $25 Rx copay. For generic drugs. The cost would be higher for non-generic. So every visit to the doctor's office that resulted in a prescription being issued cost $50, minimum. Say our family of seven ends up with about 10 doctor visits a year (our average, not counting sports physicals which are out of pocket anyway). My copay costs have a few variables but average around $1000. This on top of our annual health insurance costs. That's an annual price tag of $14,200.

For a young, healthy family this is outrageous.

Now my doctor's office visit fee is $155, but the insurance company would say, "no--we think it's only worth $98, so we'll just call this bill $98 and then we'll pay you $73 because the patient has a copay of $25." Kind of weird how they get away with that.

I spoke with my family physician's office and turns out he will knock his rate down to $54 for an uninsured visit. And he'll provide free samples of prescription drugs in most cases where it is called for. So by dropping health care coverage we can potentially reduce our costs from $14,200 to $540. That's a savings of $13,660. A year.

But the real truth is, we just can't afford coverage right now. I know we're hedging our bets against something catastrophic. But the further reality is, if someone is injured in a car accident their auto insurance covers their health care bills. Most at home injuries would not cost $13,000. We're hedging our bets against something like cancer. I'm sure four months in a burn ward could financially wipe us out. Yes, I can think of worst case scenarios. But hey, once we are financially ruined we'd qualify for Medicaid, right?

I don't like going without health insurance. I don't like taking on all of that risk, given the potential consequences. But like 45 million other Americans, we have our back against the wall.

So Missy, you're not saying you're in favor of socialized medicine? Oh, that's exactly what I'm saying. Does the idea of politicians screwing around with my health care coverage with every election cycle scare me and piss me off? Hell, yes. But it's less frightening than going without coverage.

It's time to reign in the drug companies. It's time to reign in the insurance companies. It's time to do away with spiraling costs. It's time to realize normal market forces don't work when it comes to health care. It's time to do away with this crazy "your money or your life" mentality disguising itself as simple capitalism.

I AM a capitalist. With all my heart and soul. But health care is different. It's a public matter. It's a social good. We need change.