Oregon Senator Ron Wyden is introducing a new proposal to provide affordable, high quality, private health coverage for everyone regardless of where they work or live with the Healthy Americans Act.

"The Healthy Americans Act provides a guarantee -- health coverage for every American that is at least as good as Members of Congress receive and can never be taken away," Wyden explained. "The Act provides universal coverage for no more money than our country spends today. Better care, financial health and security, no increase in costs."

The plan outlines an approach to success by eliminating inefficiency, trips to the emergency room and incentives for prevention and wellness as the primary focus of health care. In addition, the plan provides tough cost containment and saves $1.48 trillion over ten years; and is fully paid for by spending the $2.2 trillion currently spent on health care in America.

"We're here because it is time to fix health care," Wyden added. "After decades of talk and study, it's time for action. Fixing health care is not as complicated as one might think."

Basically, every American will have access to the same opportunity and level of health care coverage that the members of Congress enjoy now. The full text of the 166-page Healthy Americans Act is available as a PDF document.

I think it's safe to say that a large amount of women in this world lack self confidence. Tack on a few incisions and scars, some lop-sided or altogether missing breasts, a handful of scattered blue tattoos, a head full of newly sprouting hair, swelling arms, drug-damaged fingernails and toenails, damaged veins, alien-like ports protruding from underneath skin, unpredictable hot flashes, and a foggy brain and it's clear that women surviving breast cancer may have a few of their own issues concerning self confidence. It doesn't take science to prove this reality -- although there are studies out there that do confirm and validate that breast cancer survivors struggle with positive self images.

Results of a study released Wednesday reveal that the vast majority of breast cancer patients in Taiwan lose self confidence after having their breasts removed. The study shows that 90 percent of participants feel they have lost their beauty and femininity following a mastectomy. Women worry about their partner's perception of them after such radical appearance changes. They doubt their roles in their workplace and families. They are even afraid of having sex with their partners. And if the patients' relationship with their spouses are not good in the first place, breast removal surgery will lead to divorce about 10 percent of the time.

There is no doubt that female roles vary from country to country -- and what studies show in Taiwan may not be completely applicable to women in the United States. But there is one universal truth that knows no boundaries -- all women recovering from the ravages of breast cancer will encounter struggles. Because breast cancer does not discriminate when it comes to compromising the self esteem of its targets.

Health care coverage for working Americans is like a brittle tree in a hard wind -- and the larger limbs are beginning to snap. Between the years 2000 to 2005, 6.8 million more people became uninsured according to the latest report from the U.S. Census Bureau's Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division. Current data estimates 46.6 million people are without health insurance coverage. As employer-based health insurance continues to fade, government programs are taking up the slack -- up to a point. But given the lack of funding, there is only so much that can be offered.

In a statement issued by the Center for American Progress, "These problems did not just happen: they resulted from flawed economic and health policies which force Americans to work more for less. When it returns after Labor Day, this Congress should act to mitigate these problems by passing a straightforward minimum wage increase and extend health funding for programs like the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Moreover, policy makers should recognize the need for major change, such as providing affordable health care to all Americans and taking action to address growing income inequality."

Some are calling for a government-based universal health care system that guarantees health care coverage for all Americans. Others are suggesting a mix of private and public health care coverage. What ever the solution, there certainly needs to be one.

We can start with a shift in perspective and change in expectation. If you are working full-time for a company, presumably your efforts are helping that company make a profit. Health insurance coverage should not be viewed as a luxury benefit, nor should the largest burden of health insurance premiums be shouldered by the employee whose earnings just meet living expenses. Yet, this is happening every day in this country. The hard wind continues to batter the brittle tree.

Personally, I am not sold on a government-run, government-backed universal health plan simply because I have covered too many horror stories about rationed care in other industrialized countries. It seems a combination of programs might be the solution but the government and our elected officials certainly need to be held accountable for implementing programs that insure all Americans.

American Public Health Association Georges Benjamin is quoted by United Press International as saying, ""This is the worst news we've had all year. Our nation is not secure if we're not healthy."

Roy Thayers has experienced death up close, as he was caregiver for his first wife as she battled cancer -- he knows what it is like to watch someone fight for their life -- and he was there when she lost her life to cancer.

Thayers, who at the age of 77 lives alone, was recently told by his doctors that he was at risk for a fatal heart attack and might lose his life if he didn't undergo heart surgery to unblock the heart valves immediately.

The problem of avoiding death and living longer became a matter of time and money. When the NHS put Thayers on a nine-month waiting list for heart surgery, he worried he might not have that long to wait -- considering the urgency with which the doctors had impressed upon him concerning the imminent threat of a fatal heart attack without surgery. He was told he could have the surgery immediately if he paid for it himself.

Hopefully this doesn't happen too often, but one hour after Observer sports writer Bill Elliott was diagnosed with prostate cancer, his wife Val was diagnosed with breast cancer. That a couple would both be diagnosed with cancer within an hour of each other is stunning, but equally stunning is the lack of sameness when it comes to cancer treatments in National Health Service priority funding and the tally in quality of life and human costs. Unfortunately, the difference in treatments appears to be common.

Colleague Health Editor Jo Revill, in Both have cancer. But why can't one get the best care? takes a look at the difference between the treatment Elliot will receive for his prostate cancer compared to the treatment Val will receive for her breast cancer.

According to Revill, breast cancer currently enjoys ten times more funding than prostate cancer. From very glamorous campaigns, such as Ralph Lauren's Fashion Targets Breast Cancer, supported by models such as Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Helena Christensen and Giselle Bundchen. She muses that pictures of men in underpants highlighting prostate cancer do not have quite the same appeal as sexy women in white T-shirts.

After a lumpectomy, Val was put on an expensive and successful chemoprevention drug to prevent breast cancer recurrence. 

However, for Bill, the options offered are limited. The treatment that his physician recommended that gives him the best odds of survival -- a brachytherapy -- was denied because of costs. Brachytherapy is a proven therapy where 100 radioactive seeds are implanted within the prostate gland in order to kill cancer cells through radiation. The alternative? Radical prostatectomy -- the surgical removal of the prostate with two major side effects -- impotence and incontinence.

Bill could pay privately for brachytherapy, but he wonders what happens for men who cannot afford the better treatment. You can read about Bill and Val's story in depth here. You can listen to Bill and Val talk about the outrage they feel over the inequities in cancer treatment as they speak with Jo Revill in an audio interview here.

The costs of medical care are skyrocketing. Governments are grappling with the rising costs in how to provide healthcare and cancer patients are struggling to get the care they need. Where is the unfolding national and global healthcare crisis headed and what will our healthcare look like in the future?

According to the World Bank, the healthcare gap between rich and poor countries remains steady and warns the trend is likely to continue without some type of fundamental change in how we care for people in less-prosperous countries. Jean-Louis Sarbib, vice president for the World Bank's division that produced the new report, is quoted as saying, "This inequity has tremendous consequences for the health of the world's poor." It is predicted that the world's population is expected to grow from 6 billion today to a projected 7.5 billion by 2020, with most of the growth expected to be in developing countries.

In a universal health system, care is rationed by medical priority when determining where health dollars will be spent and what types of treatment will be covered. In the UK, a debate is taking place between British scientists who are recommending that unproven or disproved complementary therapies not be funded and therapists of complementary medicine who argue that many of the alternative therapies have been proven effective and should be funded for patients who can benefit from such therapies. This has opened up a whole new discussion in defining exactly what alternative or complementary therapies are and what place they have in modern medical practice.

Meanwhile, Prince Charles, a strong advocate of alternative therapies and organic foods, spoke to World Health Assembly members of the World Health Organization about the need to consider making better use of traditional therapies, particularly acupuncture and herbal medicines, to improve health care around the world.

"I believe that the proper mix of proven complementary, traditional and modern remedies, which emphasizes the active participation of the patient, can help to create a powerful healing force in the world,'' Charles said. "This is where orthodox practice can learn from complementary medicine, the West can learn from the East and new from old traditions."

Prince Charles is concerned that if we do not recognize the wisdom and value of the past, much of that knowledge will be lost. Putting aside politics, monarchy and scandal, I am gaining more respect for the Prince of Wales the more I learn about his perspectives concerning health and the environment.

The Jerusalem Post is reporting that colon cancer patients have launched a hunger strike in front of the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem. A promise that their medications would be included in the 2006 health basket was made before the election, and until the promise is honored, they will stage the hunger strike. According to the news report, the colon cancer patients say they will keep up the hunger strike until the medication they need to help them fight and survive cancer is made available through the national government health program -- or they die where they sit in protest.

Ron Harush, one of the hunger strikers in need of the currently denied medications stated, "We have nothing to lose. The shame must end and the drugs must be approved or we will be returning our souls to our creator." More and more, I am coming to the belief that the future global trend in cancer survival will be a luxury of the wealthy -- if surviving cancer depends on the newest cancer drugs and treatments.