ACHTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced” article. It is an editorial by the editor.

I have a confession that will surprise virtually no one who knows me or reads this publication. I am a strong supporter of a single-payer, Medicare for All health care system for the United States. I have heard and seen enough.

I am not so naïve to think such a change in policy faces a daunting struggle in the political arena. Just follow the money.

Some of the most powerful and wealthy special interests are doing and will continue to do all they can to make sure it won’t happen. I’m talking about the insurance and pharmaceutical industries and even hospitals that are for-profit.

They stand to lose a lot of money that’s been wasted at the expense of middle-class, working-class and the poor for many decades.

As most of you know, the United States is the only industrialized nation on the planet that doesn’t have a national health care program. Perhaps some of you don’t know that the U.S. system is by far the most expensive. And we don’t necessarily have the best outcomes.

I have no issue with the quality of health care offered by American physicians, nurses and technicians. They have been doing a splendid job, and the proof has been shown recently during our Coronavirus crisis.

I do have major issues with insurance companies deciding for us working stiffs what is necessary for our treatment. I have major issues with insurance companies charging us outrageous prices for procedures many us need, but can’t afford. I have major issues with these bureaucratic bean counters requiring so much red tape and paperwork. Don’t get me started on drug prices, as compared to the rest of the world.

I have grown horribly weary of writing and reading stories about common everyday folks going bankrupt because they got sick or died because they couldn’t afford to get what they needed.

As the great attorney Clarence Darrow once quipped, “Justice (health care) is like sugar or salt. The amount you get is regulated by the amount of money you have.”

I can’t help but remember the story of Jayde VanZalen, a Hopkins High School graduate who died at age 21 while awaiting a liver transplant. The community and school put on fund-raisers for her, but it just wasn’t enough. Meanwhile, those who were fortunate to be rich and famous, like New York Yankee great Mickey Mantle, got their liver transplants that enabled them more time on this earth. Yes, it’s not fair.

I hear tell from some friends and adversaries that countries like Canada have longer waiting lists. That’s true for elective procedures. I hear far more sad stories like VanZalen’s in the U.S. than in single-payer countries such as Canada.

This current crisis with COVID-19 has provided us more than a glimpse of what a troubled for-profit health care system we have. American now has more than a million Coronavirus cases and more than 58,000 deaths. We are, by far, No. 1 worldwide in both categories.

While some, like corporate Democrats, like to blame Donald Trump for our embarrassingly lousy response to a deadly virus, I submit his incompetence is only part of the problem.

With a for-profit system in place, too many poor, working-class and middle-class Americans have not sought prompt treatment, spreading the virus further and overwhelming hospitals and health care workers. And not having proper equipment such as masks, gowns, ventilators and hospital beds is the failure of a for-profit health care system that makes money, rather than safety, the top priority.

The disastrous result has been our alarming inability to cope with a pandemic.

I have been asked by many lately what it would take for me to get behind Joe Biden for president enthusiastically. It’s very simple — support Medicare for All.

But Biden flatly stated that if Congress passed a Medicare for All bill and it arrived on his desk, he would veto it. I need more than “He’s not Trump” to support him, not that it makes a heck of a lot of difference.

“That and 73 cents will get me a senior’s cup of coffee at McDonald’s.” — Me.