No one should have to go through what Cathy Seipp (lung cancer) and Michael Weiss (Crohn's disease) have had to put up with since their diagnoses.

It's a shame we have to get sick before we discover just how misquided US health care policy is.

Hopefully their messages, which beg the questions

Why do we support a system, where investor-owned (health insurance) firms compete not so much by increasing quality or lowering costs, but by avoiding unprofitable patients, denying care when needed, and then shifting costs back to patients or to other payers?

And why do we support a system where it makes sense for those same investor-owned firms to devote substantial resources, away from health care, to support those goals?

Will get out to those healthy individuals, and others who can influence change.