"...and decrease the excess population."?

We had another individual die recently in our county. That really isn’t news there are approximately 10 deaths a day in our county. But it came to mind while I was doing some of my daily reading, that death (and there have been certainly been others) was related to lack of access to healthcare. No doctor because they had no health insurance and no meds because they are too expensive.

There has been a bit of a surge in media coverage on this topic, what with “Sicko” being released and some presidential campaign talk about access to healthcare. It is an issue I have been involved in for years and comments like the following that I came across today go way beyond irritating:

But Dr. Reddy … has a principled reason for his piratical practices. "Patients," the Los Angeles Times reports him saying, "may simply deserve only the amount of care they can afford." He dismisses as "an entitlement mentality" the idea that everyone should be getting the same high quality health care.

People suffer because of lack of access to healthcare, which primarily translates to lack of access to healthcare coverage, and people die because of it as well. Hopefully the political will is growing around this so something more global can be done. In the meantime, support any effort that works to address this crisis in our society.