Here in the United States, where I live, we're facing an election over tremendously important issues.

And what really has me up in arms is that almost no one running for election shares my opinion that the most important issue is health care.

I propose that for you reading Pain-Health-News and for most Americans, health care is the issue that has the greatest impact on your daily life. It's the issue that causes you the greatest concern. It's the issue you talk about more than any other.

My weekend proves it.

Last Saturday, I began my morning speaking with a man who's back to work just three days after being hospitalized with a heart attack. At the hospital, they performed major heart surgery.

He should be home resting. He should be taking the prescriptions they gave him when he left the hospital. He's doing neither.

"I have insurance for the hospital, but not for prescriptions, " he explained. "And I have to get back to work. I have no option."

At age 54, he's not old enough for Medicare, has too many assets to qualify for other programs, but not enough to afford medications costing $900 a month.

At the grocery store, a cashier I often chat with seemed depressed. This dear woman told me her husband has lost his job, leaving them both without health insurance. Because of her pre-existing conditions, she can't find anyone who will insure her. That hardly matters now. With her husband out of work, they can't afford insurance.

The stress of the situation has given her new problems. She's  having blinding headaches. She can't afford to see her doctor.

At noon, I stopped at a cafe and was seated next to a table of 10 adults and kids, a raucous group having a happy morning meal---until the adult conversation turned dark and serious. They began discussing a family member with cancer. She can't get the level of care she needs because her insurance company denied permission.

She's been advised to start treatment while she fights the insurance company, but she doesn't have the $25,000 down payment the hospital demands to begin treating her. No one at the table had a solution or knew where to turn for help. They left the cafe somber, one woman in tears.

My next stop was at the pharmacy. I got in line behind a woman who spoke with the pharmacy clerk, then burst into tears. I spontaneously put my arm around her and said, "There, now. It will be OK!"

She hugged me, then pulled away and started toward the door. "I just don't know what will happen to me," she cried. "I'm so afraid!"

Shaken, I turned back to the pharmacy clerk who shook her head and explained, "Her health insurance stopped covering her prescriptions. She's been paying for them herself but now she's run out of savings. Today she could only afford to get one of her meds."

I left the store deeply troubled.
 

Arriving home, I turned on the TV and heard news reporters yammering about the economic crisis. 

Both stations also had reports on "the coming crisis in health care."

Are they INSANE?

The crisis is already here! What's more, the health care crisis has caused the economic crisis, but I haven't heard a single station reporting on it.

I haven't heard a single politician admit it.

You've probably heard that this economic crisis was triggered by the massive defaulting and foreclosures of thousands of home mortgages. News stations and politicians are saying this was caused by mortgages being written for people that really couldn't afford them. They want you to blame greedy bankers and investors for all this trouble..

Here's what no one is talking about: by the government's own accounting, the number one reason people declare bankruptcy and lose their home to foreclosure is because they can't pay their MEDICAL BILLS.

Look at the facts:

In 2005, the New York Times was reporting on a then-recent study by Harvard University under the headline "Study Ties Bankruptcy To Medical Bills"  stating that half of all bankruptcies are caused by medical bills and that the total number of people directly affected by medical bankruptcies was more than 2,000,000 annually.

Three years later, it's only gotten worse. A recent study by the Center for Studying Health System Change found one in every five families had a hard time paying medical bills this past year.

More than half of these families said they borrowed money to pay their medical bills.

20 percent considered declaring personal bankruptcy because of high medical bills.

Overall, the study estimated that 57 million Americans --more than one in every five persons--struggled with medical bills although 43% of them have insurance coverage.

According to a new analysis from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, which examined a sampling of noncommercial bankruptcies filed between 1991 and 2007, the bankruptcy filing rate has soared for older Americans.

The older the age group, the worse it got -- people 65 and up became more than twice as likely to file during that period, and the filing rate for those 75 and older more than quadrupled.

The authors of the study noted "There's no evidence that the problem is consumerism. They're incurring debts to meet needs such as medical treatment."

Those are the sobering facts.

And yet today, all the news broadcasters and politicians are yammering about bailing out the greedy bankers and wall street brokers.

Not one of them is talking about the fact that the single largest contributing factor to the economic crisis is the crisis in health care.

HEALTH CARE is the number one concern of everyone I know.

 Health care, the cost of it, the lack of it, the unavailability of it, the suffering of people who don't have it-finds it's way into every conversation.

For years we've been told the U.S. can't afford any type of national health care.

But now we can afford $1.5 TRILLION dollars to bail out the mess caused by lack of health care?

Reporters and politicians think we're stupid. They think we're not paying attention. They think we won't take action.

And they will continue to think that until we force them to pay attention.

I have used the power of the internet and email to contact my  representatives and let them know that this November, when I step into the voting booth, I will be a single-issue voter. That issue is HEALTH CARE.

I have written to both political parties to let them know I am a single-issue voter. That issue is HEALTH CARE.

I have emailed my local newspapers to let them know I want them reporting on my single issue--HEALTH CARE.

I am not a Republican. I am not a Democrat. I am someone who has seen politicians of every ilk and stripe turn their backs and close their ears to the cries of people all over America who need HEALTH CARE! 

I'm disgusted with them all.

When I vote this November, I will be voting for the people at local, state and national levels that I believe offer the best prospects for health care reform. And after the election, I will be prodding and nagging them to deliver on their promises and  to do better, far better, for the people who elected them to their jobs.

Their jobs, by the way, come with--guess what?--100% medical coverage, with no limits and no deductibles, for life.

And you pay the bill for it.

 

Call your Representative in Congress and your Senators. Visit  this web site to find their names and numbers:

Contacting the Congress..http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/

Contacting Local, State and Federal Elected Officials...http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml