I'm so sorry you're going through these things. When I talk to my friends who live in countries where health care is a universal benefit instead of an expensive privilege for the elite, I feel really envious.

I'll never forget the time I was living in Montreal and a friend of mine came to visit with his 12-year-old son. In their hurry to pack and get going, my friend forgot the boy's spare, full asthma inhaler.

Inevitably, the kid had an asthma attack and almost used up the doses he had left in his active inhaler. We were able to find a doctor on a weekend to write a script, and paid a nominal fee for that, I think something like $20. My friend was really shocked when we went to the pharmacy to fill the prescription and it was free.

He explained several times that he was an American and would have to pay something because he wasn't part of the system. The explanation that pharmacies do not charge for children's medication blew both of us away.

We Americans sometimes forget how terrible our healthcare is compared to healthcare in other industrialized nations. Your story is a really good reminder of just how terrible.

Beans and rice, indeed. I am so sorry about that.