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$2.00 and up), housing mortgages are rising drastically, daycare costs can range from $60.00 a week to $200.00 a week (depending on how many kids and location-could be much higher), they make too much for their children to get any help going to college, floods and droughts have driven up the cost of groceries (which they get no help with), at least a third of that $80,000 will go to taxes, and they must pay all utilities, despite the fact that the rising cost of oil can spike an electric bill by hundreds of dollars.

Unfortunately, those rising oil costs are bringing down the rich ($80,000 American) and the poor. With gas over $3.00 a gallon, anyone who must drive daily requires $30.00 to a hundred dollars a week just for gas. Hopefully, those people who whine, "You're willing to pay $3.00 a gallon for milk," are paying attention. When I begin to drink at least 20 gallons of milk a week, I'll start to complain about that $3.00 a gallon. Or, in other words, when my milk bill jumps from $15.00 a month, which it now is, to $150.00 a month (my gas bill), I'll complain.

Now, add everything the poor is given and subtract everything the $80,000 a year have to spend-that equals 4 million American children without healthcare because Mommy and Daddy make too much money. Of course, too much money also includes everyone making $30,000 a year and over-and they're faced with the same obstacles as the $80,000 American. Yet, while this class of Americans make too much money to need the S-Chip President Bush hastily vetoed, President Bush's Press Secretary Tony Snow resigned because his $168,000 a year salary wasn't enough money. Snow, who has been suffering with cancer, was going broke. Perhaps Snow would benefit more from a Universal Healthcare Plan than the S-Chip.

A Universal Healthcare Plan-now, there's a thought! As Michael Moore discovered in Sicko, the United States is the only industrialized country without a Universal Healthcare Plan. In order to better understand the idea of a plan that covers all citizens, Moore traveled to other countries. In his travels, he discovered the wait times were not any longer than the U.S. (ever tried to get in to see a specialist?), citizens were healthier because the government cared about getting them well, doctors were still making lots of money, a cashier's window where, instead of paying, the patient received money for the cab fare to get home, and, in France, a maid was sent to help out with cleaning and doing the laundry while the patient healed.

Maybe, just maybe, the American healthcare system isn't so great. In fact, maybe, just maybe, it's about to collapse under its own failures. Maybe, just maybe, Tom Delay has never had to go to the doctor. These maybes could go on forever, but one thing is certain, the biggest super power on earth is sick. While I join Michael Moore on the steps of the White House with my basket of laundry, someone needs to call France, Italy, San Marino, Andorra, Malta, Singapore, Spain, Oman, Austria, Japan, Norway, Portugal, Monaco, Greece, Iceland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Ireland, Switzerland, Belgium, Columbia, Sweden, Cyprus, Germany, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Morocco, Canada, Finland, Australia, Chile, Denmark, Dominica, and Costa Rica and ask them what they are doing right. After all, (Mr. Delay, are you listening?) the World Health Organization has ranked all of them as having a better healthcare system than the United States.

Learn more about this author, Moira Bryant.
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