When did we decide in this country that money could and should be made off of sickness and pain? When was it deemed okay for Blue Cross/Blue Shield and GlaxoSmithKline to make profits, for instance, on the care of children who have diabetes ... or leukemia?

What a peculiar strain in the American DNA--the willing acceptance of buffers between between patient and doctor. (Remember how Willi Cici in THE GODFATHER told the senate investigators, "Yeah, yeah, Corleone Family, we had a lot of buffers"?) That such a system is championed by Blue Cross/Blue Shield and GlaxoSmithKline is to be expected; that it's encouraged by every GOP candidate for president who stands behind a lectern is obscene. And speaking of THE GODFATHER, in Part II, when Senator Geary tried to shake down Michael Corleone for 5% of the gross from all the hotels in Vegas, we cringed at his smarminess and greed; yet, when insurance companies demand the same kind of kick-back from the care of sick little girls, we crow about having the best healthcare in the world.