I want my universal health care. I want our country to have a simple system like the Europeans enjoy. Like Katharine Zaleski, I've gotten sick abroad and have been blown away by how easy and cheap it was to be treated by a doctor in Europe. The unchecked greed of America's capitalism has been backed into a corner, we have it on the ropes. It's left our health care system in shambles, so let's finish it off. Profits have no place where people's lives are concerned, where the heartbreak and stress of raising a sick child is concerned.
Lou Carlozo has a healthy, beautiful son, but he lives with the special challenge of Sensory Integration Dysfunction (SID). Lou's insurance, during his 16 years as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, fought him every step of the way in seeking covered treatment for his son. For Walletpop.com, Lou shares this struggle and breaks down the corrupt tactics of the industry:
A lot of people with vested interests in the Way Things Are will likely say some very scary things about health care reform to the American people...As a Chicago Tribune reporter, I heard many people at insurance companies acknowledge off the record that the system is designed to make people give up and pay up. What should be routine claims get denied on a technicality, often on purpose. And so you fight and fight until you either just decide to pay the bill, or maybe reach a compromise you shouldn't have had to reach in the first place.
Lou also shares some interesting history on the battle for universal health care:
The last president to take a stab at universal health care before Bill Clinton? That would be Richard Nixon -- the very, very Republican Richard Nixon. We haven't heard the likes of, say, former Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee open his mouth on the issue, but you can trust him as far as you can throw him: His family made a fortune in the health care biz under the Way Things Are, and at one point his Hospital Corporation of America (founded with his dad and brother) paid more than $800 million in criminal penalties for Medicare fraud.
To read more of Lou's touching and empowering article, check it out here.