I would love to imagine bumping into someone like Phil in an emergency room, despite the fact I have no desire to end up in one, but it's not going to happen unless they have absolutely no other choice in the world. It probably still won't happen. The idea that wealthy individuals are worthy of healthcare, and those who can't afford it are left in the dust, is a monstrous claim. People go to the emergency room when they are in a serious life-threatening situation, and lower class (and middle class) Americans who can't afford the artificially spiked rates of current insurance plans should not have to wait until they can't bear it anymore, and when they can't pay the bill it hurts hospitals ability to provide that service.

Why are emergency rooms so expensive you ask? Besides the fact that they are overburdened by people without insurance already, Times Business columnist David Lazurus explains:

"Insurers demand discounts from hospitals in return for bringing them lots of patients. Hospitals, in turn, ridiculously inflate their prices so they can still turn a profit even after the insurer's discount kicks in...Hospitals also pad people's bills with the cost of providing treatment to the uninsured or to patients who require months of care."

No doctor in the world is going to tell you that waiting until you need to go to the emergency room is a superior option to preventative care. No doctor I've ever been to is going to charge $8,000 for an hour long visit. It seems pretty clear that everyone having access to healthcare is not going to bankrupt America, but it might cut the profits of companies like Cigna that make billions of dollars a year keeping us sick.

These twisted souls that labor on behalf of these profiteering insurance companies are like Caduceus, and someday they will see what happens when you play with snakes. Ciao.