by Naomi Yaeger

Created on: August 05, 2007   Last Updated: September 01, 2009

Affordable health care is a problem for many people in America. You would think if a person has a full time job or a professional job that they would be able to afford health care,but for many people the financial costs of visiting the doctor or the emergency room can be just as devastating as the illness or injury.

A Harvard study found that illness and medical bills caused half of the bankruptcies in 2002. Surprisingly most of those people had medical insurance at the onset of their illness. Many small businesses can not afford to offer their employees an adequate health insurance policy. Here in Duluth we debate the city retiree health insurance "problem." Why are we even in a situation where it is problem to give retirees the best care available?

We are missing the point when we argue over what to do about the city retirees. Americans need to band together and figure out what to do about the cost of health care for everyone.

The costs of health care are crippling America, both in physical and financial terms. In Duluth, Minn. East Hillside Patch, a neighborhood program that is helping low and middle income people access health care and putting together a survey to use to apply pressure to politicians to take action to correct the health care problem.

Another organization, the Minnesota Citizens Federation Northeast had made affordable, universal health care the top priority. Their website states, "This means a public insurance system that treats everyone the same; holds down prices; eliminates paperwork waste and duplication of expensive equipment; and takes decision making out of the hands of private insurance companies. Everyone is covered, regardless of his or her work situation, and families pay less than before."

As a journalist, I have seen Americans pull together to help each other. I have seen people come together during floods, tornados, fires, illnesses and injuries. It is time we, as a nation, pull together to help ourselves before we become crippled by the debt of health care.
The following is my personal reaction to the documentary by Michael Moore, SiCKO which played in Duluth in July.
A Jaded woman cries: America what have we become?

I think I have become jaded. I sat there watching the movie screen as the camera focused on a young woman with tears streaming down her face. She was a health insurance representative and she listed reasons why people are denied health insurance. She talked about one couple who sat down with her and filled out all

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