More U.S. health care woes: Self-employed struggle to get insurance

There's no question that we've got a health care crisis here in the U.S.

The U.S. placed 37th in the World Health Organization's rankings of the world's health systems (below Malta, Iceland, Saudi Arabia, and numerous other countries that might surprise you). Yes, apparently you can get better health care in the United Arab Emirates than you can in the good ol' USA.

The number of uninsured Americans continues to climb. Nearly 10 million children are uninsured in this country, even though 90 percent of them have one or more parents who work. Too many Americans cannot afford health care when they need it for themselves or their children.

And these are not just the working poor. According to a May 5th article in the New York Times, more and more self-employed Americans are unable to afford the rising costs of individual health insurance.

Article 25 (1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control."

But, here in the richest nation on earth, so many of us do not seem to have those rights, because insurance coverage is so closely tied to one's employment situation, and the insurance companies want to put profits before people.

Here in the richest nation on earth, there's no excuse to rank 37th in health care or leave so many of our citizens uninsured.

There has got to be a better way.