Current President Barack Obama successfully campaigned on healthcare, though his plan wasn't much good then, and has since evolved into a giant, gift-wrapped, insuance company stimulus package.  His political stock in freefall, Obama tossed the hot potato to Congress, tasking it with the passage of some semblance of healthcare reform by the close of his first year in office.  As we know now, and suspected then, there was no Congressional miracle to pull Obama's numbers out of the political toilet. Healthcare remains the hot topic, and fear of what monstrosity Congress might adopt and how much it will cost us has generated more and more popular support for the concept of a single-payer univeral healthcare system (or at least a public option to keep the health insurance industry "honest").  But the longer this process drags on, the less likely it seems that a healthcare reform package more beneficial to Americans than American corporations will ever pass, and it is all the more likely that we will end up with a pricy plan that doesn't perform as advertised.  The recent Supreme Court decision granting corporations similar rights to individuals with regard to political donations would appear to make this a virtual certainty.

Of course, I suppose that we can always hope that the Democrats will decide to screw their political futures by getting down and dirty.  Buy off the necessary number of Repubs (and wavering Dems) with pork products and ladder boosts, and pass the plan that the people want.  But that also seems unlikely, as too many politicians are blinded by love of the office, power and prestige they command.

So what are our options? There are the obvious ones, of course; email/write/call/visit your elected officials, spread the word by blogging and writing letters for the opinion pages on your local newspapers and national publications, talking to friends, family and anyone else whom you can persuade to listen.  And then there are the not-so-obvious options.

The United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights , which was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations--including the U.S.--in 1948, states in Article 25:

"Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services..."

As the United States has not even come close to these standards, there are those who feel that the U.S. should be considered noncompliant with regard to conformity to the standards of international law.  I suppose it's within the realm of possibility for member nations of the UN to float the idea of imposing sanctions upon the U.S. until we come into compliance, but only because nothing is impossible.  I suppose it is also possible that the matter will someday come before a court brave enough or stupid enough to further the practice of holding the U.S. to the standards of international law where the issue in question is not specifically addressed  in existing national law, but let's hope that's not the case.

There is another option; obscure but completely legal, and feasible to boot.  All it requires is for Americans to emulate the example of Americans who came before us, and do what Americans have traditionally done in times of discontent: act.

Our Constitution provides the American people with a method to amend it, without the need for Congressional cooperation.  This method is stated in Article V of the U.S. Constitution. To date, it has never been used, but there's no time like the present.  In general, two-thirds of the legislatures of the states must call for a  Constitutional convention for the purpose of proposing a Constitutional amendment(s).  The proposed amendment(s) would then become part of the Constitution if three fourths of the states ratify it.

Many states are already facing enormous deficits, in large part from the costs of Medicaid (government program that provides healthcare to the poor).  This may make the states easier to persuade than Congress. If a Constitutional amendment guaranteeing healthcare as a basic human right were to be passed, Congress would have no choice but to make universal healthcare a reality, for every American. 

The limitation to this option is that it depends upon the will and the action of the American people.  In recent times, it seems that we as a people have become complacent.  Sure, we complain.  Lots of us complain.  But few write letters to the editor; fewer bug their elected officials; even fewer renounce the coziness of their couch potato perspective and protest, or visit, or start a movement.  The American ideal lives on, while the American reality is depressing.  Let's break out of this fast-food, fast-buck, obese, overspending, debt-riddled, cash-crunch, shady-sub-prime-mortgage mold we find ourselves in, and remember that we are not helpless.  We are free citizens of the U.S.A., with freedom of speech, and a free press, and the right to peaceably assemble, and we have the ability to change our nation for the better. 

All we have to do is act.