I watched the recent White House Health Care Forum that was held in Des Moines and listened to people ask questions of Federal and State officials for two straight hours. They could have easily double the length of the forum to answer everyone who was raising their hands to ask questions. That seems to be the pattern over the past few decades. People that are being affected by this dysfunctional system, which is everyone, ask questions, politicians agree that there is a problem and the process repeats itself ad nauseam. Most developed counties have figured out a fairly  system of dispersing health care, but we just don’t seem to be able to get a handle on it. The Obama Administration has put the issue on the front burner, but with an immense economic grease fire burning out of control on the stove, it’s hard to see them have time to stir that pot.
Here are a few ingredients that have been bubbling over. 43 million American are uninsured. The lack of insurance is the 7th leading cause of death in the United States, Medical bills cause half of all personal bankruptcies. California alone has over 1500 insurance plans, and no one is really sure how many people are under insured. Karen Tumulty wrote of her brother’s nightmare wandering through the hell that is health care for the under insured and uninformed.
The image that jumped out of my head was that of a famous 19th century Winslow Homer painting entitled The Gulf Stream. The painting shows one survivor on a wrecked ship that is being tossed by waves and harried by sharks, while tornado driven water spouts race in the background. The one detail I leftout from the original painting was of a passing ship in the background, because quite truthfully there doesn’t seem to be a rescue vessel on the health care horizon.