A big part of the health care reform debate centers around money. Of course. Who will pay? Let's see, I make about 50K a year. My employer pays about 16K a year for health insurance for my wife and I. That means that over 24% of my income goes to health insurance. I pay a $15 co-pay to see a doctor. Prescription co-pays can be as much as $45. A hospital stay co-pay is $250 and the ER is $50. Who is going to pay? Really! I'm not paying enought already?

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Health care in this country is costing 17% of the GDP. That cost is rising at an average rate of 6.9% per year. Really, where is the money going to come from?

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My doctors are asked to work for less every year, nurse to patient ratios in hospitals are going down each year. Hospitals across the nation are closing. Don't think we can ask them to do much more, do you?

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So if we can't allow health care to take a larger chunk of the GDP every year, and we can't ask doctors, nurses and hospitals to do more with less every year, who wil lpay?

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I got an idea! My premiums on my health insurance and my co-pays go up every year. Every year more services are not included in the coverage. Maybe we could do without the health insurance industry. The for profit healthcare industry has failed to keep down costs. Maybe it's time for everybody to jump into the pool. The many healthy pay for the few that are sick.

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Maybe someone could represent the 400 million Americans and negotiate lower prices with the drug industry. Using massive buying power to lower prices is as American as Wal-Mart.

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Don't try to scare me with the old "socialized medicene" thing. Unless we are willing to let the un-insured die on the doorsteps of our ER's we already have socialized medicene. Only young people and gamblers are not in the pool. Only us old people who look ahead are paying. Please don't tell me that when a healthy un-insured young person breaks a leg or develops a heart condition that they will say "Oh well, I gambled and lost, guess it's time to die."

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We need single payer universal health care. It's good for Americans, good for business, and good for America.