The title of this entry is pure sarcasm. It's what popped into my mind today when I read about an American Cancer Society study saying uninsured cancer patients are nearly twice as likely to die within five years of diagnosis as those with private coverage.

People without health insurance are less likely than insured people to get cancer screening tests. When they are finally diagnosed, the cancer is more likely to have spread and treatment is too little, too late.

The problem of late detection is compounded by problems getting good treatment from good doctors. Everyone knows surgery, radiation and chemotherapy are expensive, and you're not to going to get the best treatment plan if you have to beg, borrow and hold fundraisers to get each step of it. And have you thought about the intense pain associated with advanced cancer? What if you—or someone you loved—couldn't afford prescription pain relief?

Some may quibble with this study because the uninsured are believed to make up a small fraction of U.S. cancer deaths. That statistic might be due to cancer patients' qualifying for Medicaid or Medicare after being diagnosed. By then it's too late to save their lives because the cancer was already at an advanced stage before being diagnosed.

Another problem is being underinsured. As Dr. Otis Brawley, cancer society chief medical officer, points out, many people don't realize their insurance is inadequate until they need it.

People opposed to making health care available to everyone say cynically, "They can can always go to the emergency room. That's what they do now, and we're paying for it." All I can say is the people who believe this must be very healthy and must not know anyone with health problems.

Here are just a few facts for these ignorant people—

• You can't go to an ER to detect cancer at a treatable stage. No colonoscopies, mammograms or biopsies.
• You can't go to an ER for cancer surgery, chemotherapy or radiation treatment.
  
• You can't go to an ER to get a prescription filled. Nothing that will control diabetes to prevent kidney destruction, nerve damage, blindness, strokes and gangrene, for example.
  
• You can't go to an ER to get therapy to regain speech and mobility after a stroke.
• You can't go to an ER to have an abscessed tooth pulled.
  

It gives me the chills to know that people in this country, in this state, in this town are suffering and dying from health problems simply because they can't afford the treatment and can't afford the insurance. It gives me the chills both because it's just wrong and because if the trend continues I could end up among them. While I'm browsing the Wal-Mart pharmacy for cheap baby aspirin to take as a preventative, over-the-counter pain relievers might be the only option for the person next to me with kidney stones. It's scary.

Brawley is quoted as saying the solution is "making sure that everyone who wants health insurance can get affordable health insurance." He advocates "an open conversation about this issue." I'm ready for more than an open conversation—I'm ready a dramatic change.

I've heard that a third of all the money spent on health insurance in this country goes to administration. A third! And conservatives claim our government is inefficient? The power of the insurance lobby is evident. When are we going to overcome the insurance lobby, agree that everyone deserves to have good health care and set up an efficient system to make it happen?