Whether we do it in a coordinated, predictable fashion or a random ad-hoc manner we all (by which I mean society as a whole) end up paying for the health care system. Ron Paul and others on the far right of the political spectrum are vehemently opposed to any kind of single payer health insurance strategy and like to tell us that people should be free to choose whether to buy health insurance. They also like to remind us even the uninsured still get health care.

Unfortunately, that care doesn't just drop out of the sky for free. Somewhere, somehow, we will pay for it. When a hospital takes in a seriously ill or injured patient that has no insurance, the cost of that treatment gets passed along to those that can pay. Medicines and supplies are not free and doctors, nurses, and technicians need to get paid.

When Kent Snyder died at age 49 in 2008 after raising $35 million for Ron Paul's first run for the White House, he left behind $400,000 in unpaid medical bills after an illness of just a couple of weeks. You and I ultimately have to pay to cover those costs through higher premiums and copays.

Unless we as a society are prepared to turn away those who can't or won't pay for care or insurance, we need to make fundamental changes. Many of those in attendance at the most recent GOP presidential debate apparently would choose to "Let Him Die!" I'm not one of those people and I firmly believe that we need both a single payer system that covers everyone and we need to take the profit motive out of health care.

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Ron Paul's Campaign Manager Died of Pneumonia, Penniless and Uninsured
At CNN's Tea Party-indulging debate on Monday, Ron Paul, a medical doctor, faced a pointed line of questioning from Wolf Blitzer regarding the case of an uninsured young man who suddenly found himself…

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