Proof that the health system is broken

As a retired nurse, I can still recall images of patients who are admitted to the hospital in critical conditions for the following reasons:

1. Elderly patients who stop taking needed medications due to phenomenal co-pay. Their financial status do not qualify them for Medicaid and yet they don't have enough resources to afford the medicines that they need.

2. Young patients whose illness could have been detected earlier had there been affordable insurance coverage for preventive procedures.

3. Uninsured hardworking young adults with families to support living from paycheck to paycheck and opting not to pay expensive premiums,

4. Able-bodied patients who chose not to earn more than the poverty level if only to qualify for Medicaid.

5. Inefficient medical history-taking methods such that multiple physicians attending to a patient would order unnecessary tests or order medications that interact with each other.

The fourth reason bothers me the most. In this country, one has to be very rich to afford health insurance premiums or very poor to qualify for Medicaid. The ones in-between fall in the cracks. The system is definitely broken. I support President Obama's plan that will simply make insurance work better.

Phoebe Amago

Wheaton