So I have been contemplating going back and forth for awhile on whether or not I wanted to send my thoughts on the health care debate, but I believe that the need is too great to sit back and do nothing.

I, myself am fortunate to enough to have health insurance because I work at a large enough firm that can afford to help provide good coverage. Sadly, for many hard working Americans, this is not the case. There are people in my own family whose both parents have worked full time jobs and still struggled to provide health insurance for their family. Healthcare should not be for the privileged or elite. Every person has a fundamental human right to quality healthcare --- healthcare that is affordable, accessible, and compassionate.

Recently, you might have seen the movement on the Internet quoting, "No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick." I believe this simple and true statement. Right now, 46 million Americans have no healthcare coverage and 22,000 Americans DIE each year because of the lack of adequate health care coverage. These numbers are staggering and unacceptable for the country we live in today.

Here are some FACTS of how we got to where we are today:

The United States stands alone as the only Western nation to rely on a free-market health care system. America has tried to encourage free-market competition to improve our health care and keep costs in control. Because of our free-market approach, large for-profit corporations run much of our health care system with minimal oversight or regulation.

Japan, Canada and all of Europe have taken a completely different approach to health care for the past 30 years. They all have free-market economies, but every one of them has chosen a planned universal health care system. They have almost no HMOs, and they do not allow for-profit corporations to run any significant portion of their health systems.

Thus for the past 30 years we have been participating in a huge unintended health care experiment comparing America's free-market, competitive, system with the rest of the Western world's health planning and budgets. The result has been clear: Canada, Japan, and Europe provide excellent health care for all of their citizens. While America ranks at the bottom of every major health statistic ranking 37th in quality.

Besides the 46 million Americans who are uninsured, including over 10 million children. Another 40 million Americans have such poor insurance that many doctors will not see them, and if they actually face a severe health crisis it may not be covered.

Literally millions of Americans are forced into bankruptcy from medical bills.

Our health system is also very inefficient costing nearly twice as much per person as every other nation in the world. If we were as efficient as the next most costly nation, we would save over $400 billion each year in health costs.

In polls, Americans rank dead last in satisfaction with health care.

It is apparent that our current system does not work. President Obama's proposed system is not perfect either, but it is definitely a start in the direction. I just ask that everyone do their research and realize the facts about the proposed plan before making their decision. Do not be fooled by blatant lies of death panels, illegal alien coverage, abortion coverage, etc. These lies are created by those that will no longer be able to fill their pockets by bankrupting American citizens just because they need healthcare or by those who would rather just have the president fail based on malice instead of truly considering the importance of the debate at hand.

This is not a debate to choose your side based on your political party preference. This is about doing what is right for ourselves, our fellow brothers and sisters and our children. If you believe this debate is about Christian values, then why is the richest nation on earth allow millions of poor people to exist without health insurance. To do so violates biblical justice. How can pro-family Christian political voices not demand health insurance for poor families? How can pro-life Christian political coalitions not insist on decent health care for poor babies after they are born or the 22,000 poor people that die because of a lack of coverage? How can any Christian read what the Bible says about the poor and what Jesus says about the sick without hearing a divine call to demand that every person in this nation, starting with the poor, have access to health insurance?

Check the facts, then tell you congressman how you feel.

More facts can be found at

http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/health_care/plan/