Health-care costs are out of control in our nation. Prescription drug costs represent the fastest-growing component of these expenditures. A recent, highly publicized report on a cholesterollowering drug illustrates the complexity of this issue.

As many as 100,000 Americans die each year due to reactions to prescription drugs. This means that fatalities related to prescription drugs rank fifth in annual causes of deaths in the United States.

I believe that access to affordable medical care of high quality is a basic right of all American citizens. Without decent health care, there is little chance for “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

The presidential campaigns of Sen. John McCain and Sen.

Upon arriving in England in 1958, I was unexpectedly introduced to the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS). A serious gastrointestinal infection landed me in the Western Fever Hospital in London for a 10-day stay.

Earlier this decade, the World Health Organization ranked France as having the best health-care system in the world. The study considered access and various health statistics.

Several years ago, our granddaughter, who was 5 years old at the time and residing with her family in Germany, sustained severe burns in an accident.