What is the price of a human being?

$4,200 a year is the running rate for the average American model, according to the National Coalition on Health Care.

If you’re like me, you never had to worry about being sick, beyond missing a couple days of school or maybe Susie’s girl-only sleepover. You grew ill, went to the doctor, got medicine, and went home. Quick, simple, and as American as apple pie.

But for countless Americans, some estimate as high as 54.5 million, it just isn’t that easy. In a nation that welcomes your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, many of our own citizens are uninsured, denied health care, and consequently unable to afford the luxury of maintaining their well-being. And the numbers are growing: 8.6 million less Americans are uninsured now than in 2000, while the coverage provided by employers has decreased every year since President Bush took office. With the cost of private health insurance rising five times faster than that of inflation, it isn’t hard to see why.

The term “health care crisis” is thrown around causally in the media and in political discourse, but in the wake of these numbers, there is no doubt that what’s going on is, indeed, a crisis. For a country that invades other nations to “ensure human liberties,” it should be a public outrage that our own firefighters and cops and mailmen cannot afford to take care of themselves.

I spent the greater part of last week in a well-known Buffalo hospital, and saw the devastating effects of our flawed system firsthand. Patients were denying necessary X-rays, medical services, and doctor visits because they couldn’t cough up the dough to pay for them. “What do you think I am, a millionaire?” asked one elderly man outside the ultrasound room. He told the nurses he needed to win the lottery in order to afford all the amenities that the hospital asked of him.

What I witnessed was just a microcosm of a bigger problem. Citizens around the nation are leaving cancer untreated, diabetes untested, sewing their own stitches, and performing all sorts of self-medication in order to avoid seeing a doctor. Not to worry, the money saved from these helpless people’s suffering is going to a good cause—in 2005, the CEO of the nation’s largest insurer, UnitedHealth, was paid $124.8 million, while the average compensation for an executive of a for-profit top ten health plan was $11.8 million. Try telling that to little Johnny when he asks why he can’t receive his life-saving surgery.

Nearly every developed nation in the world has standardized health care. All of Europe, most of Latin America, and a growing number of countries in Asia all find it common sense to look after their people. Even our neighbors to the north adopted a mostly federally subsidized system long ago. And ignore the myths about waiting months for surgery or jam-packed, immobile Canadian emergency rooms. I know, last year I was treated in one.

The mention of European and Canadian health care systems usually provokes the dreaded “s” word: socialism. Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, and most recently the White House press secretary have all employed this fear-conjuring word to describe efforts in reaching universal health care. Contrary to popular belief, doctors and caregivers in Canada, France, and Germany are paid by the government but actually work in the private sector.

Hillary Clinton, who has been one of the most prominent health care lobbyists for more than a decade, has not escaped the socialist charge, even though her plan is really a joint venture in which Americans choose between a private health care plan and a public program similar to Medicare. Don’t let the label fool you.

How can America possibly pay for extended health coverage when the president is asking $333 million a day for the Iraq war? Building one centralized health care system would eliminate scores of administrative waste in the form of medical histories, insurance approvals, submitting claims, paperwork, as well as eliminating the need for doctor’s offices to maintain their own record-keeping system. This would create immeasurable funds to help the uninsured. In addition, the enactment of what is known as primary care medical home is also proven to free up finances. This means that physicians get to know the patient and keep up with medical records, offering preventative care and advising against unnecessary or redundant labs and X-rays. Money is clearly not an excuse.

Michael Moore came to UB this Saturday, and hopefully conservatives and liberals alike were present to hear him speak. If you can get past images of him yelling in a boat at Guantanamo Bay and standing on the steps of the White House with a basket of laundry, he really does have a good message. This is a matter that surpasses politics. This is about human beings having the right to be alive and healthy. Surely no elected official would deny citizens life-saving treatment from police and fire protection, so why then is it even an issue to receive necessary medical services?

This is America. Let’s start acting like Americans.

Jill Gregorie is a junior Political Science major and Features Editor for Generation.