Should healthcare be for profit?

This is my first official blog on this site, and the subject of the hour seems to be about our National Health Care program. I remember growing up [I am in my mid 50s] when no one went bankrupt because they got sick. In 2008, more bankruptcies in the United States were do to huge medical bills they could not pay. Isn't this a moral issue as well as a humanitarian one? If you can remember the days when getting sick didn't mean you went broke, then you are old enough to remember your community physicians and the fact that they lived quite well. They lived in nice houses, their children went to good colleges, and they didn't strive to own a 48 foot sailing vessel. In case you aren't aware of when the healthcare system went south, please check out these sites:  If it matters to you; watch, listen and read.

http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/research/rockridge/the-logic-of-the-health-care-debate@b_start%253Aint=4.html and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QkgUkM0o6Q

That's right. Richard Nixon. For a nation who repeatedly claims to be a Christian nation [ I sooo tire of this one], we rarely behave in a Christ-like manner. What would Jesus do? [can't hear that one enough].

I read on blog after blog, TV programs alike, that the poor have medicaid, and the elderly have medicare...what about the working poor? Do the math on the minimum wage. As of July 24, 2008 the national minimum wage is $6.55 per hour. If someone works 40 hours per week for 52 weeks, [poor folks don't need a vacation] their annual income is $13,624. This places this worker in a Federal tax bracket...this does not include state taxes, etc. of 20%. That worker pays $2,724.80 in federal taxes alone. That leaves an income of $10,899.20 to pay state taxes, and buy health insurance for their family [sure] and get that 401K retirement account going [you bet]. Oh, and pay child care expenses....maybe a rebate on some child care expenses, maybe not...but you must PAY for it first. Could you live, eat, buy clothes and shoes for your children, pay rent, car and fuel....you know, and pay for a family healthcare plan? [my husband and I pay a little over $1,000 per month for our Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Alabama coverage - and we are pretty healthy]. For two people. If you have the money, you can get an actual cross and shield!

For instance check out the following website to see the tax brackets in countries who do provide healthcare for their citizens:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_bracket

I also read that we have the best healthcare system in the world. Then how do we explain how we rank so low worldwide in lifespan, and overall healthcare?
http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-healthcare.htm

I'm sure there isn't a perfect healthcare system anywhere in the world...but we could do a lot better.  It feels very wrong to me to let greed reign over the very lives and health of our people.  Over any people. Yet so many otherwise decent people believe it's perfectly fine.  I don't think Jesus would approve.