Stroke at 33. California State Worker Laid Off - Could not afford Blood Presseure Meds.

I'm seated here in the surgical patients' family waiting room at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.  While waiting for my partner, John, who is having a procedure today, I have begun talking with Sonia.  She is waiting to hear about her thirty-three year-old son.  He was a custodian for the State of California until recently when he was laid off.  Of course, in accordance with free market principles, his medical insurance was terminated.  This was despite the fact that he suffers from high blood pressure and is required to take daily blood pressure medication that was prescribed in order to prevent a possible cerebral hemorrhage.  Then of course, when he became unemployed, he could not afford to renew his life preserving prescriptions. 

Sonia, his mother, was sharing, (we first met in the elevator), that her son suffered a massive stroke yesterday.  Because he is young and otherwise healthy, he has survived thus far.  Sonia awaits word of his prognosis.  This event highlights the truth that poverty is a death sentence.  Forty-five thousand Americans die each year due to lack of health insurance: That's fifteen 9-11's annually.  Odds are that Sonia's son has suffered debilitating losses from this stroke.  Accordingly, he may have permanent disabilities.  This is personal responsibility in action in America today with free markets for the working class and government sponsored socialism for the capitalist class.  The free market was spared the burden of providing a young man's medical care.  Now the citizens of the US are picking of the up the bill.  The thing is, I would have been willing to pay for Sonia's son's medical care that could have prevented this disaster through my taxes.  We need single payer medical insurance now.  Yes, a government program.  The free market is a killer.