Is Our Health Care System Deadly?

My sister Lisa, 49, has been recently diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma that has spread to seven of eight lymph nodes. The lump measuring 2½ by 3 centimeters has been removed. The oncologist is scheduling her for a PET scan to see if the cancer has spread.

The sad fact is that Lisa suspected she had breast cancer for years, but her postal job didn't provide health insurance. She earned too much to get assistance. A single woman, she could not afford out-of-pocket medical expenses. She knew that if she could not make the payments, the medical facilities, doctors, laboratories and more would garnish her wages. It happened once already when she had surgery to remove uterine fibroids.

So, like many working-class Americans, Lisa did not go to the doctor.

Then a miracle happened. Lisa was outbid for the postal contract. Unemployed, she was able to get assistance. A clinic performed the mammogram, ultrasound and lump biopsy. She had surgery to remove the lump less than a month after the mammogram.

Unemployed and diagnosed with breast cancer, she can apply for and get Medicaid. She's meeting with a legal aid representative to help her file a Supplemental Security Income disability claim and discuss her housing issue. She's losing her house because of the unemployment.

Doctors aren't waiting for Medicaid—she needs to start chemotherapy immediately. Next Wednesday she visits the oncologist to make a plan of treatment.

All of this could have been prevented if our health care system gave tax-paying citizens below a certain income level (or other criteria) the same health care it awards our prisoners.

Americans need a publicly funded health care system. For working-class Americans, our present health care system can be deadly.

Do you support a publicly funded health care system? Is there a better way? Share your comments and vote in the poll below.