Socialized health care in America or the fund raiser.

[Cleita]

I went shopping this afternoon at one of our local thrift stores. It's in a run down neighborhood of trailer parks and shabby mom and pop businesses trying to make a go of the American dream. A small single owner deli next to the thrift shop had a sign up for a fund raiser for a fellow small business purveyor of barbecue. The young man in the picture didn't even look to be thirty years old, yet the fund raiser was to get enough money for his cancer treatment. I almost went inside to find out more but decided against it as I couldn't really help out anyway. However, it struck me that this young man as a business owner, had no insurance or that his deductibles and copays are too much for him to afford. His friends are trying to get money together for his treatment. If that young man had been able to buy into Medicare, he would get his treatment and yes the rest of us would be paying for it. However, it struck me that a fund raiser was another form of socialized medicine. The problem is that not everyone has caring friends to throw one for them. I really think it's pathetic that this has to happen in a country one of the largest economies in the world and in a state that is the seventh largest economy in the world.