Failed Americans

The Week Magazine 9:424 - An excerpt of an excerpt on American health care reform as seen from the eyes of columnists and commentators outside of the U.S.
The trouble is, most Americans just don't care about the poor, said Christina Patterson in the London Independent. The have-nots are seen as "failed Americans, Americans who let the side down." That's why it's so hard for the U.S. to enact any kind of reform that might help the less fortunate. "Sure, America's got talent, but it's also got some of the most unpleasant, uncompassionate, unerringly ruthless people on the face of this planet."
I can't say that I disagree with that last statement. Throughout this health care debate, I keep hearing "What's in it for me?" Opponents fear "rationed" care. Open your eyes people, health care is already rationed to those with employment and those who can afford to pay. With the highest unemployment rates in the last 20 years, one would think that every American knows at least one family without health insurance. I held two hourly jobs for three years; neither employer offered me health insurance. I paid hundreds a month for the most basic of plans that had a high deductible and barely covered services beyond emergency care. I am not a failed American. My lifestyle choice meant that I didn't fit into a cookie cutter recipe for exempt employment with health care coverage, but I was working hard. Didn't I deserve to have decent health care? By the way, as a nursing student at one of the premier teaching hospitals in NY state, my student insurance currently covers visits with a nurse practitioner and emergencies only. Forget prescriptions or labs or specialists.
Americans don't care about the poor. Americans don't care about their neighbor either.