Joe Conason loses a friend

Joe Conason at Salon writes about losing Maria, an uninsured friend who died of heart failure at age 52 on New Years Eve.

Haven't enough of us lost loved ones? How blind and hard-hearted can ideologues be about this?

Conason writes:

"She had no health insurance -- which meant that the hereditary heart condition that killed her probably went undiagnosed and untreated. That almost certainly killed her, as the lack of regular care prematurely kills thousands of other Americans every year. And while she was acutely aware of how that problem affected her fellow citizens, and worked hard every day to change that injustice, she was unable, like so many who work freelance and in small business, to help herself."