My story is a bit different -- it contrasts our broken system with the much maligned "socialized medicine" of western Europe. I was Labor Attaché at our embassy in The Hague, Netherlands. While doing damage control in our flooded house, I fell 30 feet off a 3-storey roof onto a brick patio. Within seven minutes the Dutch EMT's arrived and quickly transferred me to Bronovo Hospital. With 3 broken ribs, a punctured lung, and a shattered elbow, I was admitted immediately into intensive care. The team of doctors stabilized me, restored my breathing, and the next day performed the necessary operations to save my arm. With following physical therapy, I regained full health.

All this, because the embassy is enrolled in the Dutch health-care scheme for all its employees. The life-saving care I received had nothing to do with my diplomatic status and everything to do with a system that really works for all Dutch citizens as well. While eternally grateful to the Dutch for the excellent medical treatment they extended me in a dire emergency, upon reflection I recalled -- with some bitterness -- that had I fallen from the roof of my own home in Virginia (which is about the same height), it would have been an estimated $600,000 accident. The costs would have totally bankrupted me and mortgaged our family's future . . . even with the health insurance I carry.

In your health care reform effort, please consider a single-payer system as one more option for people to consider.