We need a rational approach to health care. There is a solution as long as we are willing to agree on one proposition: health care is a human right.

If someone is sick or hurt in an accident, their treatment and recovery should not depend on how much money they have but on the fact that they are a fellow human being with the same rights as you expect.

Every year the health care insurance industry takes in billions in profits and that was even during the recession when so many were hurting. Yet these insurance companies add nothing to your health or well-being.

Medicare works: just ask someone 65 or older. Most advanced industrial countries have a similar program but in those countries it is for everyone. My simple solution is supported by nurses’ organizations, at least two physicians’ organizations and the majority of American citizens.

Make Medicare available to everyone, no one left out.

It will not be more expensive, probably even save money and the profits that now go to insurance companies will be used to provide health care for those who can’t afford it.