Health care in the United States seems to struggle in its endless fight to ensure and protect Americans. The United States is the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not ensure that all citizens have coverage, according to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. 47 million people in the U.S. have no health insurance (www.aflcio.org). Add the people who are not insured enough and that is a large portion who are not being fully protected. More money is spent per person on health care in the U.S. than in any other nation in the world; Two trillion dollars a year according to the Wall Street Journal. If we are spending so much money on health care, why is it that people are left uninsured? 14,000 people lose their health insurance every day due to job cuts according to the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Medical illnesses and jobs that do not support medical benefits are other reasons why some Americans are left uninsured, giving them no other choice but to pay the high medical expenses or ignore their medical issue.

President Obama's plan was to fix the health care problem in our country. Making it more affordable, making health insurance more accountable, expanding health coverage to all Americans, and making the health system sustainable were all proposals for his health reform. So far he has signed the Children's Health Insurance Reauthorization Act, the Recovery Act, and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. These Acts alone have helped millions.

On a local level, we are seeing more and more people being turned down for medical benefits or seeing many people lose them. After the October 2009 car accident that seriously injured Paige Anderson of Bovey, Anderson's father lost his job at the mines which left him with no health insurance for his recovering daughter. This upset happens to millions of families across the nation and should never happen. No one should have to worry about going bankrupt due to health issues.

I am one of those who are left without health insurance. My father was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder which forced him to take an early retirement, thus losing our family's health coverage. My mother was able to insure herself through her job but to cover both my father and I, it would take about $400-$500 out of each of her paychecks. My father was turned down health insurance through his retirement pension because his medical condition didn't cover their standards. How can our government turn down a man with a medical problem, medical help?

It is the harsh reality that our health care system is failing on us in a devastating way. The overall health of our nation is being destroyed in the hands of corporate greed and misguidance. Our nations hope is that progress will continue to be made to fix a problem we have faced for way too long.