I haven’t felt much like writing these past few days partly because I have been working a lot and partly because things are so depressing around here right now that it just hasn’t felt right to write.

I have moved to a rural part of Virginia and have started working in a small rural hospital. I had been working in a small hospital on the Outer Banks and I loved it. We saw a lot of poor people there and did a fare share of indigent care but nothing like what I am seeing here. Around here there are a lot of proud people who have lost their jobs and when they lost their jobs they lost their health insurance. They all do the same things; they don’t make eye contact they just look at their hands. It’s sad. This is why I am for universal health care. People should not have to worry about going bankrupt when they get sick. I guarantee you a lot of people are going to become disabled or die during this recession because they could not afford to go to the hospital for “just a little indigestion”. Some people abuse the system but most people don’t. We as a society need to change our view on health care; we need to make it available and affordable to all.

We need to pay to train new doctors. North Carolina had a nursing grant that I took advantage of. They “loaned” me money that I could pay it off in one of two ways. I could work in North Carolina for an agreed amount of time or I could pay the loan off in cash. The United States could do the same thing for Doctors. Work in under served areas like family medicine and preventative care and get part or all of your schooling written off.

In 2000 the world health organization rated the US 37 out of 191 in over all health care. In 2005 we spent 15.2 % of our GNP on health care. An article I read in The New York Times World’s Best Medical Care? - New York Times was informative. We can do better than this. People should be able to look me in the eye when they seek health care, they should not think twice about coming to the hospital with “a funny feeling” in their chest. People should not die because they don’t want to risk losing the family home.