Mariner, I agree wholeheartedly with what you say.

The only thing I would object to is your statement that we (Americans) "should all hang your heads in shame."

There are many Americans who have been fighting for a national health system in this country for years. I remember the arguments for such a system since I was a teenage, and I'm pushing eighty. The opposing cry was always something like, "But that's socialized medicine!" as if that was any kind of rational argument. We have "socialized" (paid for by taxes) police and fire protection, along with streets and highways, parks, libraries, and on and on. Yet, one of the most essential services for the well-being of the citizens is being denied because of a distaste for an ideology that we have accepted as perfectly normal in many other areas.

Most recent attempts have been made by the Clintons, and now by the Obama administration. But they both made the same mistake.

There will never be a national health care system in this country as long as the insurance companies have any voice in the matter.

But, of course, the insurance companies own most of Congress. There are politicians who can't be bought (e.g., Washington State's Congressional Representative Jim McDermott, whom I have supported and campaigned for for years) who can't be bought, but with rare exceptions like him, America has some of the best politicians that money can buy!!

Don Firth