People such as John Pearson, well into their fifties but still working at physically demanding jobs that pay okay but still don’t provide medical benefits, cannot — and so do not — get comprehensive medical checkups with specialists who can diagnose conditions that can and do kill them if left untreated. (Medicare is wonderful but it should cover everybody when they reach 45 instead of having to wait until they’re 65.)

In Memphis, people in these circumstances can go to the Church Health Center for minor emergencies and small things but the stuff that people need after they turn fifty — like heart stress tests, colonoscopies, and blood work — they don’t get until they turn sixty-five and are eligible for Medicare, but by then it might be too late.

Because medical care is so rotten in the United States for a lot of people, many do not get the care and attention they need and end up dying of heart attacks and other conditions that could be treated had they been able to see a specialist who will properly diagnose what ails them, then get them to the surgeons who will perform the operations that will fix their ailments, and then get them the care they need to recover so they can keep living viable lives.

But we have freedom in America — at least that’s what we are told — and one of our freedoms is freedom from medical care for people who can’t afford it. (In her song, ME AND BOBBY McGEE (1970) — written by Kris Kristofferson — Janis Joplin nails it with the line, “Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.”)

So people end up dying years and decades before they would die had they gotten the proper care.