One reason why President Obama is driven to reforming the health care system in the United States is because of what happened to his grandmother. An insurer denied her coverage as she was dying from cancer.

It was a little different with me, but it was at bottom the same thing.

While Kaiser pretends to be a health care organization, it is in fact an insurer. And it behaves like one. Avoiding what the insurance industry calls "medical losses" -- i.e. medical bills for care to the sick and dying -- is what Kaiser is about.

In my father's case, Kaiser doctors consistently under-diagnosed his condition and then put off tests that would have shown them wrong. So when he had a blood clot that threatened his life, the Kaiser folks said he had sprained his ankle.

They advised rest.