We think we’re lucky. My son has a secure job with outstanding health care. However, last night he fainted at work and was taken to the hospital.

What if the doctors find something serious? Can his company afford his continual medical expense under America’s private profit-driven health care? Most individual and small business bankruptcies in America occur because of unpaid medical expense.

The difference between health care in America and other industrialized nations, where health care is available and affordable for everyone at less cost per capita, is the concept medical care must make a profit. Profit-driven care provides the best for those who pay. When they lose their job and their insurance they lose care. Should every American continue to risk his or her life on this gamble?

America’s individual medical costs are 10 times that of other countries, while most Americans lack dependable medical insurance, or are uninsured. Americans’ cannot afford profiteering health care.

Health care is our public responsibility. Private profit-driven care destroys our economy.

Bob Olson, Bellevue