An Invitation to Blog on Health Care in America

Year in and year out, reforming America's troubled health-care system is the biggest third rail issue in politics. No matter how you approach it and no matter how you want to fix it, you're going to get shocked.

I previously asked visitors to Kiko's House to guest blog on reforming the U.S. immigration system and for their comments on the third anniversary of the war in Iraq. I am now extending an invitation for you to share your views on how to fix health care.

A little background:

America spends far more for health care per capita than any other first world country.

Nearly 45 million Americans have no health-care insurance. A surprisingly large minority of this group are technically not poor.

Emergency rooms are groaning under huge loads because many patients don't have family physicians, let alone insurance.

Previous efforts at cobbling together a national health-care system have been disasters, although Massachusetts will begin experimenting with a new near-universal system beginning next year.

Pharmaceutical and insurance companies have a disproportionately powerful voice in any discussion about fixing health care.

And foreground:

Utterly absent in what discussion there is about health-care reform are the voices of the key players in the system after patients themselves -- nurses.

If you are a nurse or know one, you or they should step up and let the rest of us know what's really going on at hospitals -- which are ground zero in health care -- because there can be no reform until the problems there are fixed first.

I single out nurses because unlike the powerful physician, drug and insurance lobbies, they have no voice in the discussion. I know this for a number of reasons, including the fact that I owe my life to a nurse.

What do you think needs to happen to fix this mess?

Please limit your guest posts to 300-400 words and try to make them solution oriented. If you 're so inclined, tell share a little bit about yourself and your own health-care system experiences. Visitors to Kiko's House from outside the U.S. are welcome to contribute.

Please send your comments not directly to Kiko's House, but to

kikokimba@gmail.com

Anonymous posts are fine. Just make sure you let me know that you don't want your name or email used.

The deadline is the close of business on Tuesday, May 2. Until then, stay healthy.