Poverty fuels medical crisis

Until few months ago, I didn't know what all those political hypes about health care, HMO, Medicare and Medicaid was about. When I moved to U.S. I had to get medical insurance. I was under my uncle's policy for a while as a dependent, while I lived with them during high school, but when I came to college, I had to get student health plan. Some of my friends who are international student have complained that the cost for the plan was expensive. I knew that seeing dentist is not included in the plan, and therefore it would be expensive to get checkups and necessary treatments. One of my friend, couple years ago waited to go to hospital to get antibiotics for her sickness, so she got worse. When she had to go to ER, she was ended up with over one thousand dollars of hospital bills. The wall of high health care cost was right around me, but I didn't realize that so many people in this richest country on earth, do not have health insurance.

In the article "Poverty fuels medical crisis," a woman named Deborah Maple died during her asthma attacks because she couldn't pay an inhaler. Tomorrow during class, I will be showing some parts of Michael Moore's documentary "SiCKO". In that documentary, Moore go over to Cuba with couple dozens of people including three of 9/11 rescue workers who are suffering from illnesses they got during their rescue works, but not getting sufficient health care. After being deny to enter detention camp at Guantanamo Bay where prisoners like the 9/11 terrorists receives top class medical attention, they go over to a Cuban Pharmacy and hospital. There, one of the rescue worker with lung problem finds that a inhaler she pays $120 dollars in U.S. costs 5 cents in Cuba. How ridiculous is this that a person has to die because she cannot afford to pay something that costs 5 cents in some part of the world?

As the article mentions no one escapes effects of health crisis. Sooner or later, we all will have to feel the effect of long term cost of inaccessibility of health care. In a society that is so driven by profit, private profit, how do we fix this? Presidential candidates talk and talk about changing health care system. Would it change in next four or five years once new president is elected and his or her term begins?