It depends on what you call profit, Doug. And, yes, I have run my own business. Good service at a fair price. Must have been, because it kept expanding until I had all the business I could handle. I made a pretty decent living at it. Currently my wife and I own our own home free and clear, and although we are not rich, we are debt-free and live quite comfortably.

Also, we have health insurance (my wife still works part time at the Seattle Public Library) and we are both of an age when we qualify for Medicare. Since I wasn't physically able to serve in the military (polio when I was quite young), I don't have VA benefits.

So please don't try to tell me what you think I don't know.

What I see are millions of people who are cut out of the system for no reason other than that they are not profitable to the insurance companies. Other countries don't allow their citizens to do without in this manner. And many of them have better, far less expensive health care than we do.

City on the hill? I don't think so. The measure of a society is how it treats its most vulnerable members, and we just don't measure up.

By the way, I'm not a socialist, but I'm not frightened of the concept either. There are countries in this world that are frankly and openly socialistic, and they are just as free and democratic as we are, if no moreso.

(Way past my bedtime, but if you want to pursue what I raised in my last paragraph above, particularly my last sentence, I'll be happy to tomorrow)

Don Firth