Suffering due to lack of adequate medical treatment has become an epidemic in the United States.

If the United States continues to legalize and support denial of medical care to seriously-ill individuals, those individuals must be given a dignified, painless way to end their suffering. Anything else is torture, and a violation of basic human rights and dignity.

ERISA law has given insurers a way to commit legal fraud. By entering into an ERISA-type insurance policy, the insurance company is considered a "finance company" rather than an insurance company because policy payments pass through an intermediate trust fund before being dispersed to covered individuals.

In this manner, an insurance company, which is now considered a "finance company" can employ loopholes in the law to legally deny care in circumstances under which they would be obligated to provide care had they been considered an "insurance company" and subject to State and Federal insurance regulations and oversight by insurance regulatory agencies.

Individuals with Medicare or Medicaid are frequently unable to obtain medical care because of difficulty in finding providers. The Immune Deficiency Foundation (IDF) has tracked avoidable deaths of their members who are on Medicare. These deaths occurred after much illness, pain and suffering for both the individuals with this illness and their families.

Many individuals and families in the US remain uninsured, or cannot afford basic health insurance or they are underinsured.

Hysteria regarding drug abuse has reached a level such that most of the individuals who fall under any of the above categories are unable to obtain adequate pain relief.

A euthanasia alternative should be provided to any individual who has a serious, chronic illness or medical condition and meets one or more of the following conditions:

1. Denial of medical treatment for the condition by a health insurer (whether public or private).

2. Inability to obtain medical treatment for their condition because of lack of health care coverage.

3. Inability to find a suitable medical provider covered by the individual's health care plan where said medical provider is covered under customary provider arrangements without extra payment required to retain that medical professional.

As long as this shameful lack of access to medical care exists and there are millions of individuals with painful, debilitating chronic illnesses who can't even obtain palliative care (symptom relief) much less treatment of their underlying medical condition, these individuals MUST be given an option of euthanasia. Anything else is Torture and a Human Rights Violation.