Day Three - Delayed because of Illness

In the book, One Nation, Underprivileged Rank indicates that families wave their way in and out of poverty depending on the occurrence or non-occurrence of detrimental events (e.g., job loss, family disruption, or ill health). In December of 2007 and January of 2008, I suffered one silent and a second violent heart attacks totally incapacitating me to the point of a quadruple by-pass and reconstruction of my left ventricle. Recovery was a long and painful journey only made possible by outstanding medical care, good health insurance, and a strong social support network. The bill was over $367,000.00, on which, I am still making payments on the costs not covered. Fortunately, I had a good job with a sufficient disability pension. Adjustments had to be made to the family budget but we were never in jeopardy of losing our home to foreclosure or having to skip meals to pay bills.
 Over the week-end I took ill to the point of forcing myself to go to the emergency room of a hospital to seek help. Because of fears of infections and their possible devastating negative effects on my health personally, medications were prescribed. My out of pocket costs, after an insurance deduction, was $60.00. If there had been a lack of coverage, the medications purchased would have been over $450.00. I do not incur costs for emergency room visits.
It is easy to see the negative effects or inability to afford to seek competent health care for those living on the edge or in poverty. Simple illness requiring after-care is out if reach for many. The poor are forced to use hospital emergency rooms as "free clinics" because hospitals are required by law in Illinois to provide the minimum necessary care to those who do not have insurance. The incident that inspired the law was a boy suffered multiple gun shot wounds and was "dumped" in the drive way of a hospital emergency room that was not a trauma center. The E.R. personnel summoned an ambulance from the Chicago Fire Department to transport this individual to Cook County Hospital for treatment. The summoning hospital staff did not even provide the minimum of "care", like they really did, to sustain life. The man died of his wounds prior to the arrival of the ambulance.
What of the poor? What of the aged? Is this the way a civilized society shows the proper treatment of it's members? Is this the way the most powerful nation on the face of the Earth wants to be seen in the International community? the United States has no room to sanction other nations for "Human Rights" violations until they rectify what is happening to their own. The central question that keeps surfacing in this class, "What is the obligation of government to care for the needs of its citizens? If an obligation, to what extent?"