Health for all?

I consider myself to be a very lucky/blessed person on the whole. That's not to say I've had a charmed, rose petals strewn across my path, cartoon birds and animals coming in to do MY housework, life. No, far from it sometimes, but I have been fortunate to have three lovely healthy (for the most part), happy (for the most part) children.  They had the accidents, bumps, cuts and grazes, Chicken Pox, ear infections, tummy upsets, viruses, same as others. We were sometimes in and out of the Dr's surgery more often than I care to think about.
Matthew was born with a bladder infection and was in hospital at 10 days old and successfully treated for it. It never ever occurred to me that this was anything special, just the norm here....a person is sick, they go to Dr or hospital for treatment and that's that.
Not so for everyone on this planet, unfortunately. When I was in California for a year, I took Dan to get his vaccinations and while we were in the waiting room, a Mother and Grandmother came in with a very tiny baby. They spoke in Spanish to the receptionist and asked for the baby to be seen by a Dr. They were told they had the wrong insurance and should go elsewhere. They were visibly upset, and a bit bewildered as they left the office. The Grandmother soon returned, and, crying and pleading asked for someone to please see the baby. I felt sickened, truly awful and ashamed that this was happening. I wished I had brought cash with me instead of my one cheque folded up and already made out for the sum of $65.00 for Dan's treatment. I would have gladly given them the money to have that poor little child looked at.
Right there in that office, I quite hated the American 'health' system. I told Dan that "This would never happen in England. It just wouldn't."
I came home to England with a whole new appreciation for our health system, where anyone gets treated according to need and not according to insurance of the 'right' kind. I'm proud to belong to a caring society like ours, no matter the critisism it sometimes gets.
But what about the vast amount of children who are in impoverished circumstances around the world?
Save the Children are tackling this very issue, but governments can do more to aid them in this.

1. Please Sign The Petition We can help in such a simple way.

2. If you blog, write 100 words about what healthcare or health workers mean to you. Link up with Mummy from the heart  link to a number of other bloggers, and encourage them to do the same.

3. Tweet about it, Facebook it, Google+ it and talk to people to get more supporters.

I'm passing the baton to:
CraftyMama
MilesMusings