The defense of our current Healthcare System is coming from one place and one place only: Healthcare Insurance companies. They are the only ones with enough clout, money and motivation to keep Americans involved in an industry that puts human health below the bottom line. The other night on my way home from San Francisco I was listening to the addiction and sex radio show Loveline. Adam Corolla was filling in for the current host and he mentioned his old producer from the Loveline show, Bryan, who has an inoperable brain tumor. Corolla was pleading for people to go to his website and donate. I don’t know if he has insurance, if it only covers part of the deal or if he just needs grocery money, but whatever it is he needs, it is too much. Stress is the number one killer of humans, contributing to Heart Disease and other illnesses. Imagine being told you have the fight of your life ahead of you and instead of buckling down with family and doctors, you have to set up a PayPal account to solicit donations so you can pay hospital bills, feed your family and keep your home.

Since when did the goal in life become to make more money at the expense of American lives? When did the act of scouring past forms and medical reports so you could disqualify someone from their own policy when they need it most become OK? When did the act of letting someone die to save a few thousand dollars become morally acceptable? When did a 1% tax increase become worse than making sure every American is healthy and insured? NEVER. That is the answer. Money is secondary to human life. When decision makers look at a cancer report and then at the bottom line and side with the bottom line over common decency, it is time for reform, it is time for massive overhaul, it is time for firings and new companies and new systems where humanity comes before money. We’re not talking about pizza here, or even home mortgages, we are talking about brothers, sisters and moms and dads. Saying to yourself “Well, they should have gotten a better job” is not a human statement, it is a sick and shallow testament to the greed and indifference that marks this New American Ideal.