I was sick this week. Not life-threatening sick, not even take-a-whole-day-off-work sick. But sick enough that the Kleenex box and penicillin are my new best friends.

My recent bout with strep throat wasn’t fun, but it could have been much worse. When I woke up at 8:30 Monday morning with a throat so swollen that I could barely speak or swallow, I called Kaiser Permanente, booked an appointment for 10 a.m. and walked out of the doctor’s office with my medication by noon. I was on my way to recovery less than 24 hours after I knew I was ill. But for millions of uninsured Americans, that kind of treatment is a dream.

The sad thing is that most uninsured adults are gainfully employed, according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation’s August 2006 report. More than half of the uninsured are actually low-income families with working adults. They have been priced out of the doctor’s office by the rising cost of medical care.

Job-based insurance programs are covering fewer and fewer services. Premiums nationwide rose almost three times as much as earnings between 2000 and 2004. Many working adults cannot afford their high insurance premiums, or they cannot afford the exorbitant out-of-pocket costs imposed by “lean and mean” employee health plans that offer employers low premiums and pass the cost to the employees.

For those who don’t qualify for Medicare but who work jobs that don’t offer insurance — the gardeners, the restaurant workers, the independent contractors, the entrepreneurs — health insurance is entirely off the radar.

For the uninsured, access to health care is sporadic and far below the quality that those with insurance have come to expect. Receiving treatment involves going to county hospitals and free clinics, which entails endless waits and a lack of vital follow-up care. To make it worse, this treatment is provided by doctors and facilities that are stretched beyond the limit.

Even major hospitals, especially county facilities, are woefully underfunded. California’s 58 counties boast only 33 county hospitals. Many are cutting back services, and some are even planning to close in the face of a lack of proper funding and support.

Proposition 86, the proposed tax on cigarette sales in California that will appear on November’s ballot, would send millions of dollars to these hospitals in hopes of keeping the emergency room doors open. Despite the flaws of Proposition 86, this opportunity for voters to directly support the medical system is the exception to the rule. On the whole, the government and the voting public seem to be just fine with the growing struggle to find and provide affordable care.

Providing health insurance for every American citizen is a matter of priority, and politicians and the people that elect them (you and me) have put universal health care somewhere near the bottom of the list. Few talk about helping Americans recover from sickness and injury. Even fewer will vote because a candidate commits to more universal insurance. There’s plenty of energy to debate issues like gay marriage, even though tens of millions more Americans will be affected by lack of health care than gay marriage.

Neglecting the basic health needs of millions of hard-working Americans should be a source of public shame. It’s pitiable that the wealthiest nation in the world denies health care access to many of its contributing citizens. Rectifying this should be a goal of anyone who has ever needed a doctor.

The beautiful thing is that helping more Americans access insurance doesn’t mean reworking the system. It means spending more money on health and working with the system we already have. And we pay for it by putting our spending in line with our priorities. If we are concerned about the health of our fellow citizens and ourselves, spending enough money to care for them would make sense.

Fully funding and staffing the nation’s hospitals and public health care providers — the institutions most likely to care for the uninsured — is a start. More scholarships for medical students would allow more people to become doctors and nurses without having to worry about crushing student debt. Raising the income ceiling for Medicare would give millions more some form of insurance through the existing system, including working low-income and middle-class families. Even tax breaks and incentives for employers to offer more comprehensive coverage to their employees would make health care more accessible.

Working Americans are caught in an unhealthy vise, and something must be done to relieve the pressure. And it must be done quickly before the system collapses under its own expense and America is left with no choice but a government-run health care system. The longer we wait, the sicker the system becomes — and the more Americans are priced out of healthy living.

The country doesn’t have to resort to a government-run health care system encumbered by bureaucracy. By reassessing priorities — and spending and voting habits — we can make Americans healthier, happier and more productive.

Vote for politicians who make expanding health care a priority. It’ll be good for your health.

• Jon Mendelson is a copy editor at the Tracy Press. To contact him about his weekly column, call 830-4265 or e-mail jmendelson@tracypress.com.