I am currently on the waiting list for nursing school in Madison WI, the waiting list is so long that I have decided to move to Michigan to attend a college there. Luckily I got accepted, and I will begin this fall. While I have been on the nursing school waiting list I have been working at a homeless shelter for people with mental illness for the last three years. Working at a homeless shelter has opened my eyes to some of the problems facing the American health care system. The people that we serve are homeless for many reasons, including mental illness, drug and alcohol problems, criminal history and many other socially related problems. Due to all of the problems that our clients have they tend to greatly neglect their health. Most of our clients do not have any form of health insurance, so they will not get any kind of preventive cares done, and will end up going to the ER when something major happens, leaving the taxpayers to cover the insanely large cost of the ER visit. Unfortunately this happens a lot, hospitals and taxpayers get stuck with the bills and the people who are going to the ER for major medical care never get any preventive care and keep ending back up at the ER. If this country had some sort of national health care system we could greatly reduce the cost of health care over all by more people getting preventive cares before their health issues become an emergency for everyone to pay for.