If you want to understand the role of insurance companies in our nation's health care melodrama, think of them as pimps. And like true pimps, they use lies, pay-offs and hired political muscle to guarantee their 30 percent cut of our health-care dollars.

Our health care system is soon going to be strained beyond belief. Presently, the poor are cared for and the rich have no worries. Middle-class folks like me have the most to gain from a plan that includes a national health care option, cost-containment provisions and universal participation yet we fear change the most. Change can be scary.

Contact Begich, Murkowski and Young. Advise them that you are paying them to deal with this problem right now. Promising to do something next month or next year or during their next term is a tactic that any smart 5-year-old can see through.

If you care about your children or your grandchildren, today you'll start writing some e-mails and making some calls to our legislators.

Eric Treider

Soldotna