Health Care Reform PP11

I believe that it is every persons fundamental right to health care. Why? I personally have had to experience being without health care insurance when we moved here from L.A. My husband and I had only been married a year and failed to update his medical insurance options and that left me and my sons without health coverage for the entire first year we lived here in AZ. I remember thinking I hope none of us gets sick or hurt because we aren't going to be able to go to the doctor or hospital without it costing us a fortune. Well that possibility turned into reality in late November of 2003. My youngest son came down with a cold and for the first 3 days I kept him home and tried to keep him well hydrated, but that didn't work. He eventually wound up in the emergency room and I was presented with a bill for about $4000. I couldn't believe that an 8 hour visit to the emergency room could cost so much and then I had no clue how we were even going to pay the bill. Part of my keeping my son home without consulting the doctor initially was because I was hoping he would get better before getting worse to avoid getting that type of bill. It is sad to know that you have to risk your child's life or your own just to make sure you don't go into debt. I remember thinking how unfair it is to not be able to just take my kids or myself to the doctor when I needed to without having to think about the cost of co-pays and residual bills that insurance would not cover. Even today, I will not go to the doctor because my co-pay is $30 for my regular doctor and $45 for a specialist...these are costs that I can't afford to pay due to being unemployed for almost the last year. I like the other countries and how people who are covered under NHS don't have to think like me about co-pays and is my pain really worth the trip to the doctor this time or should I just ignore what's going on with my body. I have a prescription that is about to run out within the next 5 days and it burns me to know that I don't have the money to get a refill and it burns me even more knowing that I have to pay $50 just to get it filled. That is on the cheap side of my prescriptions. So, people like me should not have to choose between their health or eating for the next week because that co-pay could feed a family for a week or put gas in someone's car to continue to work. I have never understood why the U.S. doesn't regulate the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies from making these huge profits off people. Whether you are rich or poor, no one should have to go without preventative care or emergency care or medications that can keep someone living longer just because they don't have health care coverage. The U.S. should've been the country to set the standards across the world for health care for all, but we have failed miserably on that front. We are too rich a country to allow for our own fellow Americans to be without the fundamental right to access awesome health care and at no charge to us.