According to Thomas Sowell, in a recent Baltimore Sun opinion piece, the "biggest of the big lies in the health care hype is that a lack of insurance means a lack of medical care." Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, a Stanford think tank. He then mentions how he paid for his own broken arm and jaw when he didn't have insurance when he was young.

Sowell also writes that "few people show the slightest interest in what has happened in countries with government-controlled medical care." He cites waiting lists in such countries while people in America are just "picking up a phone and making an appointment."

Sowell is right. You can just pick up a phone and make a doctor's appointment here in the U.S.

Paying for it, well, that's not quite as easy.

A recent opinion piece in the Boston Globe by Laurence J. Kotlikoff relates his experience at a recent conference where the keynote speaker was former Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Her topic was the healthcare crisis and her message was personal,according to Kotlikoff:

The gist was that even she lives in constant fear of major uninsured health bills. Not her own -- those of her son. He can't afford insurance because his son -- her grandchild -- has a preexisting condition.

As I listened, a light dawned: O'Connor and the rest of us with health coverage are also uninsured. We too face terrible, albeit more remote, healthcare risks -- the risk that our employer will drop our plan, that Medicare will go bust, that our plan won't cover our needs, that premiums will eat us alive, that our doctor will stop taking our insurance, that long-term care will wipe us out, and that our uninsured friends and family members will need major financial help.

For the rest of this piece, including Kotlikoff's opinion on possible solutions, please see here.

The American Cancer Society plans to dedicate its entire $15 million advertising budget this upcoming year 2008 to the consequences of being uninsured in America, according to an article in The New York Times.

According to the article, the group cites frustration at cancer rates not dropping as quickly as hoped and recent research indicating that being uninsured leads to a delay in cancer detection as factors in its decision. The advertisements are nonpartisan and don't recommend specific solutions to the U.S. healthcare crisis, but they are intended to raise awareness of this issue as we head into the presidential campaign of 2008.

The TV ads for the campaign include one of images of uninsured cancer patients appearing fearful with a narrator saying, "We're making progress, but it's not enough if people don't have access to the care that could save their lives." Another commercial shows a young mother whose family has gone into serious debt because her insurance did not fully cover her cancer treatments.

I think this sounds like a great use of advertising money. Let's hope the campaign increases awareness among all Americans to press our politicians for change.

U.S. Census Bureau data released this week shows a rise in the number of American lacking health insurance. The Census Bureau data shows that 47 million people did not have coverage in 2006, up from 44.8 million in 2005. The number of children without healthcare coverage also rose to 8.7 million children up from 8 million.

The main reason for the increase is that employment-based coverage rates continue to fall. According to the survey, almost 59% of the uninsured worked during 2006. Adults aged 18 to 34 make up the largest portion of the uninsured.

I've watched beloved family and friends battle cancer and even with the best health insurance going, it was still an uphill battle. I can't imagine what it's like for those who don't have health insurance. Let's hope our country can figure this one out.

For a review of the coverage on this survey including the responses from the Bush administration, lawmakers and presidential candidates, please see the Kaiser Daily Health Report here.

Individuals with advanced-stage laryngeal cancer at diagnosis were more likely to be uninsured or covered by Medicaid than those with private insurance, according to a study led by Amy Y. Chen, M.D., M.P.H. of Emory and the American Cancer Society, Atlanta.

Laryngeal (voice box) cancer is diagnosed in nearly 10,000 men and women in the U.S. each year. Stage at diagnosis influence prognosis and treatment greatly.

Patients who were diagnosed with advanced-stage laryngeal cancer were also more likely to be female, black, between the ages of 18 and 56 and live in ZIP codes with low proportions of high school graduates and low median incomes.