I know I've said this before, but it bears repeating. Again and again, if I have to. Alex Chilton died because we in the United States do not have Universal Health Care.

On March 17, 2010, 59 year old Alex Chilton died of a heart attack.

The day before he was mowing his lawn and felt a sharp chest pain. Not having health insurance, he blew it off. Unlike many rock stars, Alex was not rich. He toured occasionally, but mainly loved his life in New Orleans. He had put his heart and soul into the city, doing what he could when Katrina struck, and playing a series of benefit concerts afterwards.

So the next day his heart went into full attack. He was rushed to the hospital and died. If he had insurance or health care, he could have gone to the hospital to check it out, and would have been rushed into emergency surgery.

Alex Chilton always had an underground following. If you only paid attention to pop culture, you might know him as the songwriter who wrote, and with his band Big Star, recorded "In The Street," which eventually became the theme song for 'That 70's Show.'

Which brings us to today. Right now, the Republicans want less people to have health care. They want the market to decide who gets to live and who gets to die. Talk about death panels - leaving it to the market is literally making everyone roll dice for their lives.

An acolyte of Ayn Rand would say he deserved to die, because he wasn't rich.

Right now, there are literally thousands of Alex Chiltons out there. Americans who might get that warning sign that their heart might stop at any moment. And they can't have it checked out. I've been uninsured before - and it's scary. Every single threat to your health has to be downplayed, and you have to ask yourself "could this be serious? Do I have the money for the ER?"

And ER visits aren't cheap. Granted, if you had health care, you could have gone to your doctor and just paid the $70-100 for an office visit. But if you are uninsured, you do not have a Doctor. The only time you go to see one is if you are in the ER.

We need Medicare for all. Other countries have it, countries far poorer than ours. Even Cuba, a dictatorship, has universal health care.

Someone should introduce the "Alex Chilton Bill" - Medicare for ALL.

RIP El Goodo...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu_gB34pHLA