The soaring cost of private health care

According to BusinessWeek Magazine, hospitals around the country are beginning a campaign of using banks and credit card companies to extract payments from patients with little to no insurance.

However, unlike other causes of consumer debt, we cannot simply choose not to visit the hospital.

It's easy to say "Don't buy things you cannot afford" when talking about a car or house, but it is foolish to take the same attitude with our health.

Now more than ever we see the cost of private health care. When hospitals sell their debts to creditors to harass citizens who can't even afford their own health insurance, we find a system that is more concerned about the bottom line than about the well-being of our fellow man.

This flawed system is now forcing the poorest of Americans into a corner, and imposing an ultimatum that no one should ever have to face: wealth or health.

If we are so concerned with the bottom line, then consider the following. Medical bills and illnesses were responsible for approximately half of the filed bankruptcies in 2001.

Uncovered medical expenses averaged $13,460 for those with private insurance, and over 60 percent of those without coverage were forced to go without critical health care in 2005.

We are dying, and yet we would rather suffer as individuals than give the government another nickel.

Are we so near-sighted that we would forsake our future health for immediate savings? Every day, Americans are forced to make a choice between their wallet and their life. I for one believe that is a choice that no human being should ever have to make.

Christopher Burrell

Barrington