A couple of days ago I had one of those eye-opening experiences where something you can see and hear just drives a point home so much more than merely reading about it. I went with a friend to the hospital here in New York, and I spent a few hours in the Emergency Room waiting area while she was being checked (she's OK). I witnessed several people coming in to seek help, just to turn around and walk away when they found out their health insurance (or lack thereof) would not cover the costs of medical treatment.

I read about it almost daily how millions of Americans don't have health insurance. Still, the cost of health insurance keeps rising, making it a luxury item for even many working families. Yet, the reality of that situation has never really hit me until I saw it with my own eyes at the hospital that night.

People came in, some of them clearly in pain, and went to the register to fill out the necessary forms. No one can be denied treatment, but if you don't have insurance you get billed by the hospital for all charges incurred, and it is not cheap. I saw people battling with the decision - pain versus financial ruin - and most people chose the former.

The contrast to the abundance of material wealth that exists in New York City could hardly be bigger. A city that offers people any imagineable and unimagineable way of spending money cannot offer basic and affordable medical treatment to some if its citizens. The inequalities in the American society causes these hardships, and the inequalities are reinforced and widened when those that need it the most cannot afford to stay healthy.

This is where the socialist in me screams out for a government-led plan to ensure basic health care for everyone. The privatization of the American health care industry has brough along state-of-the-art facilities with quick and efficient medical treatment - for the rich. When profits enter the equation the poor are left out - they are simply not valuable customers. I believe there are certain areas where the government should not outsource and privatize. Basic services such as health care, education and infrastructure should not be subject to the instability of market forces.

7 out of 8 of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) target these three basic services, the foundations upon which a healthy and prosperous society is built. International development should focus on enabling local governments to provide these services. Educated people in good health, and provided with basic infrastructure, will be productive citizens.

Many donor countries have gone from a needs-based to a rights-based approach to development. That is, instead of considering health care and education as something that would be beneficial for most people, it is considered something every person has the RIGHT to. Perhaps if American citizens were aware of this way of thinking, they would not accept the current situation of the American health care system and the direction it is heading.