Martin Luther King Jr. and health care

"Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane."

-- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,

1966

This is a three-day weekend for many of us, as we honor the legacy of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. We won't speculate what a man who fought tirelessly against inequality would think about today's health care reform fight. But we do know that in life, King was haunted by inequality between the races, grieved by the plight of the poor, and that he called the health care system injustices of his era the "most shocking and inhumane."

Today, more than four decades after his assassination, the American people and their politicians are talking about the health care system. In honor of the man who fought inequality, here is some reflection on our health care system, and attempts to either reform it or to repeal its reform. Commonly called Obamacare, reform will expand access to more people, including those who are lower income:

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, in 2009-2010, 41 percent of low income adults were uninsured, and 45 percent of poor adults were uninsured. But 6 percent of those who make four or more times the poverty rate were uninsured. Fourteen percent of white Americans were uninsured; 22 percent of black Americans were uninsured, and 32 percent of Hispanic Americans were uninsured.