Health Care For America Now

Via NBC:

More than 45 million people in the U.S. have no health insurance. So, where do they go when they're sick or hurt?

Many leave and head out of the country where they can afford to pay for the care they need on a trip becoming known as medical tourism.

A torn bicep caused searing pain, and a dilemma for Stephen Hoyle. He could not afford the surgery to fix it.

"We are one of America's 20 million uninsured families, and started looking at costs approaching $20,000," Hoyle said.

Hoyle was priced out of the U.S. Health Care System, so he flew to Costa Rica, where medical costs are dramatically lower.

Hoyle joined an estimated 500,000 Americans traveling out of the U.S. every year for some type of medical care. Care they can't afford here.

It's simply amazing that it is cheaper to fly thousands of miles to a foreign country than to have a medical procedure here at home. It speaks to the incredible amount of waste and bloat in the private health care system that sick Americans routinely subject themselves to long trips in foreign lands because their country couldn't provide them quality, affordable coverage. And it's more than just health tourism. As Holly from Aurora, IL told us, the health care crisis in America is forcing hard working people to contemplate leaving the country they love:

"My husband and I currently have very good health insurance through his job at a public school.  Our insurance has been invaluable in the last year, because my husband was unexpectedly diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma (a cancer of the lymph nodes) last year, at the age of 23.  All of his treatment was covered by our insurance, with low deductibles on our end, and he is now in remission.

We realize that such good insurance is not the case for most Americans, and are very concerned about health care in the future because we are planning on moving next year so I can go to graduate school.  Thus, we will need new jobs and new insurance.  We're very concerned that we might not be able to get adequate insurance because of his pre-existing condition.  For this reason, we are looking at schools in Canada and the UK, where we know we would be covered.

As much as I love to travel, it makes me incredibly sad and angry to know that we might have to leave our own country because health care is not considered a right that all people deserve access to in the United States, as it is in so many industrialized nations."

Holly is absolutely right. Why isn't health care a right in the United States? Because of our short-sighted policies, we stand to lose a teacher to a foreign country, a job that is always in demand. And it's about more than just losing skilled workers. Our businesses can't compete globally while shouldering skyrocketing health care costs.

Here in America, we pride ourselves on our tough, smart outlook on life. We are a great nation, and we are great enough to solve this problem. We can make health care affordable to all. We can make quality health care a right. And we can do it in a way that maintains choice.