I was inspired by TheraP's post on her husband's surgery experience and its contrast to what's going on in Gaza.  So I dedicate this to you, dear lady.

I have spent much of my life immersed in my own and my parents' surgeries and illnesses. Worries about the costs of medical care--above what private insurance covers--left us all with a split focus during a time that should have been dedicated to recovery.

In this country, we have a deeply cynical approach to getting the medical attention we need: If we can afford it, we can get it. If we can't afford it but we get it anyway, we risk our futures by putting everything we have on the line to get that care--up to and including our homes. If we can't afford it and we are at the "mercy" of a profit-based medical system, our care is at best cursory and inadequate.

As I've read and heard about the medical workers struggling to help the injured in Gaza, I've not only been deeply impressed by the dedication they give to caring for the people, but also how they are blind to who the people are and what they have. The only goal is to help and heal.

I'd like to think that this would be the attitude to carnage like this in the US, but as more information about the post-Katrina nightmare emerges, I'm not so sure.

Gaza's horrors are beyond my grasp and influence. They go far beyond the need for health care that is there for everyone, no matter what their illness or their circumstances.

But this country's problems frequently come back to this issue. Universal access to health care--preventive, curative, and catastrophic--would resolve many of them.

Imagine looking for a job without having to consider whether or not its medical benefits are sufficient. Instead, we could seek out jobs that fit our skills and our interests.

Imagine companies not having to factor in health care costs when setting their budgets for employment--or trying to figure out how to cut corners in their benefits.

Imagine getting sick and being able to focus on getting well, rather than on the fears of losing our jobs--and what little insurance we have--for being sick too long, or worse, our homes.

Imagine also a body of elected officials who can make decisions about the health care of the nation without the influence of the insurance and pharmaceutical companies corrupting those deliberations.

So many of the rancorous fights between management and labor, constituents and Congress, haves and have-nots would vanish if putting a price on health and its care were taken out of the equation. Much of the class struggle in this country would vanish, as well.

Americans seem to fear the terms "socialized medicine" and "universal health care" because of the associations drummed into us--the Soviet State, Marxism, and all of those un-business-friendly and thereby evil governments that threaten our "freedom."

Some clever people have found the term "single-payer health coverage," which is much less threatening to freedom-loving Americans. And there's a plan to give this to all of us in this country.

To me, the greatest freedom would be to live my life focusing on having my work and avocations contribute to my society, without factoring in the costs for my monthly insurance premium, my co-payments for therapy and check-ups, and my medications.

HR 676 is single-payer health coverage being called "Medicare for All." It's sponsored by John Conyers and 92 other members of Congress. It has the support of a majority of physicians and nurses, and their professional associations. It terrifies private insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies.

This is not the way Obama is going, sadly, but it can still happen. We can make it happen. We can make our representatives support it and commit to voting it in. We can make it clear that we want and need a country that doesn't dole out medical care on the basis of how good our insurance plan is but simply because we need and want it.

We can make this a country that has compassion for all of its residents, no matter who they are. And then, once we learn that assuring that every person in our country deserves health and security simply because we exist, we might be able to apply that to how we treat the rest of the world.

HR 676 is a big step toward that goal.