I am an Australian registered nurse in Intensive Care with relatives in the US. When I visited them recently I was shocked to have my uncle ask me if he could use the antibiotics he uses on his cows on himself, as they were much cheaper, and owing to his multiple medical problems he required a lot of medications he could no longer afford. When my cousin found out his wife was pregnant he should've been overjoyed, but he was too worried about how he would fund the delivery. His own birth was complicated and was not payed off by his parents until he was 18 yrs old! When I arrived back in Australia I nursed an American man on holiday who had just been involved in a car crash and would need several operations and a lengthy hospital stay to fix him - he was understandably stressed, but it turned out he was mostly stressed about how to afford the operation, which by going on US standards he thought he'd need to mortgage his house for! These experiences and many more stories I have heard are the reason that I promised myself I would never work in the US despite having citizenship and loving the country and it's people. I want to be able to offer the best care possible for all my patients and not have them worrying about the cost of hiring me on top of their already stressful medical problems. Obama's health care reform is a chance for real change that is long overdue. I hope the people of the US can rally behind their President and push strong enough to make this work. If it does I might even make use of my citizenship and become a proud American nurse!