We have to get to the place as a society where we see our neighbors without health care as just as much of an emergency as our neighbor's house on fire.

As a tax-paying member of my town, I absolutely want the fire truck here when my neighbor's house catches on fire, his personal tax status be damned. If his house is allowed to burn, mine will catch on fire too. The whole neighborhood will go up in smoke.

Same thing with health care. If my neighbor doesn't have coverage, and doesn't go to the doctor until he is seriously ill, and even then, he goes to the emergency room, MY costs go up. I can pay my own premiums all I want and tell myself I'm taken care of, but if my neighbor isn't, then the system will spiral out of control. As it is spiraling out of control. It sounds selfish, and perhaps it is. But this is one of those places where the safety of the whole is better than the safety of the individual.

If I lived in a bad neighborhood with no police protection, I could build a wall around my house, top it with razor wire, and hire an armed guard. But that doesn't make it safe for me to go to the grocery store or take my dog for a walk. That's what we're doing in the "everyone pay their own way, don't worry about the whole" model with US health care. Those of us with coverage have the wall, but that doesn't stop the rampant crime in the street.

The problem is that a bad guy in the back yard is visible. A house on fire is visible. My neighbor's lack of doctor visits and impending bankruptcy is invisible until he either dies or moves away because he can't afford his house any more.

If I call the fire department because my house is on fire, they don't look up my tax status before they send the truck.

"Let me see here, Mrs. Smith, our records show that you were late in your county property tax payment last year, and that's what funds your local fire department. Sorry, no can do. Get your garden hose out."

"Hmm. Bad guy in your back yard? But I see that you're newly moved to the area and we can't verify that you're a tax-paying resident of Smallsville. The Smallsville police therefore can't help you. Hope you have a gun. Have a nice day."

We've decided that as a society it makes sense to educate ALL children in public school (quality is a whole 'nother issue), because it's better than having them run loose on the street. We need an educated population, regardless of their ability to pay. "Sorry, you lost your job, and you're no longer paying state income tax while you look for a new job. Therefore your children must leave school until you're employed again. Sorry."

It's ridiculous, of course. But having poor or nonexistant health care for large portions of the population IS the equivalent of having your house on fire. Just ask an emergency room doctor, or a hospital bean counter having to charge $8 for a tylenol to make up for all those people who can't pay their bills.

My husband is a psychiatric intensive care RN. He works with people who will NEVER have the skills to get a job with benefits. Just try employing someone who is paranoid schitzophrenic, self-medicating on anything they can find, hearing voices, and taking off their clothes in public. If the county picks them up and commits them to a hospital stay involuntarily, it cost the hospital $1200 per day, but the county only pays $800. The hospital eats the difference, and charges it across the system to everyone else. You and me and the $8 tylenol. Many newer hospitals don't have psychiatric wards, because they're a money loser.

We'd rather trip over these people on the street than care for them properly... and just hope like hell they don't move into OUR neighborhoods.

The whole mess is seriously broken.