Last night Colby and I watched Michael Moore's Sicko. I had really never cared to watch it before, as I am not a huge fan of Michael Moore. I am a huge fan of good Health Care though. I urge you all to watch this film. It is a naked look at how broken our system is, and how far behind we are in comparison to Canada, England, France and even Cuba. In these other countries people don't have to pay out of pocket for their health insurance...nothing. Have a baby...Free, have Cancer treated...Free, have an extended ICU visit...Free. Drugs are all one price too. Why are we so far behind? Greed. Some ass hole (Kaiser) figured out that if they deny more things than they permit, they turn a profit. Dr's in HMO's are actually earning money for turning us away from needed procedures. This sickens me! In England, if a Dr is able to get someone to stop smoking, or lose weight, or lower their cholesterol he gets a bonus. Well done England! That is the way to get people to be healthy. Dr's in this country would make a fortune in weight reduction alone! People who are against this bill in the US, say that it would mean that we have to pay for other people's medical bills. Wow, this from the proudest Christian nation in the world! For people who are so quick to quote the bible as a reason for everything, they seem to forget Matthew 7:12 "So in everything do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums the Law and the Prophets" You see it says EVERYTHING, not just what suits you. Even Jesus talks about helping the sick. I don't think he would like our health care system either. I would love for people to be able to go to their Dr to be treated and not have to worry that if they go, then they won't be able to put food on the table, because the co-pay is too much, or that when the bill comes, they can't pay for it. The most important thing we have is each other, if we can't be healthy, then we don't even have that. I urge you to put away the ridiculous thinking of Social Medicine and realize that what we have now is so much more debilitating than that. If Social Medicine is having health care that is free to everyone, and we can all be covered no matter what our pre-existing conditions, then bring on Social Medicine!
7 comments:
But...but...the government can't do anything right!
Just look at the Postal service...the military...law enforcement...judicial system....infrastructure...on and on. Total failures!
I would rather my tax dollar go to a system that actually HELPS other sick people (prescrition drugs, health care, etc.) than have my tax dollar lining the pockets of the insurance and drug companies.
Congressman Anthony Weiner of NY has a great quote on Michael Moore's website: "Name a single thing a private insurance company does to make anyone healthier, to save anyone money ... They operate to make profits. How do you make
profits? By giving away as little, and collecting as much."
That's our current "health-care" system in a nutshell.
It's not an easy or a quick fix as it took us a long time to sink this low and get this tangled up. I wish we could scrap everything and start fresh.
Like the post, Jo. You're right. Americans should be ashamed of this system. One of the things that upsets me in home health is that my poorest people have everything taken care of, my rich people are set up nicely, too, but my lower middle class are going without adequate healthcare due to financial reasons. It's wrong...
I hear what Colby is saying...the government is doing such a crappy job with medicare, so why would we trust them with the whole ball of wax, but isn't there a working model somewhere that we can emulate? I know that socialized medicine has it's downfalls---a canadian friend of mine said her dad had to wait 18 months for an elective surgery---but they are more on the right track than we are. The future of our country scares me. I worry for my children.
Clarification: My comments about the gov't were heavily sarcastic....I know there are many areas where gov't could do a better job, but I don't believe they're completely inept at anything and everything.
The gov't is capable of doing things successfully.
I find Michael Moore to be extreme; and I don't trust that what he puts in his movies in unbiased or entirely accurate.
I also have had friends who've had babies and medical conditions treated in the Netherlands and Canada. Both have horror stories about every one of those experiences. (One is actually Canadian relocated to the US a few years ago, the other is US military at a very tiny base w/out access to US military medical personnel.) Both ladies have had other babies born in the US and ironically have one child each with very serious medical conditions. My Canadian friend recently had to move back to Canada (husband lost his job in US) and they are terrified about how her son's seizure disorder will be treated in Canada. Additionally, my aunt is an American who has lived in England since I was little. She came back to the US to deliver all three of her children and has also flown her kids back to the US for certain dental procedures. They can barely cover the out-of-pocket expenses to do this, but they believe it's a better option than receiving treatment in England.
I don't have a solution to our problem -- I can totally see what Cori said about middle class struggling -- but my friends and family who have received care in TNL, Canada & England say that the experience itself is a nightmare (waiting, no options, etc) and the dr's care was also terrible.
Tanya- I am sure that there are pleanty of people in Canada, England, France etc that are unhappy with their health care. Just the same as there are pleanty of medicaid people who are unhappy here. What bothers me is that at anytime, for any reason we can be uninsurable and are left to fin for ourselves. Also, even if we are insured, 20% of a 1 million dollar hospital bill (very easily done) is still about the cost of my house. We would be financially devistated if that were to happen to us.
I just thought I'd share something interesting. Aaron's trip to the ER in Singapore (for his flu) a couple of weeks ago only cost 65 Sing dollars. That's about 45 bucks in US currency. Crazy, isn't it? However, here in Singapore, that's considered expensive.
I went to the ER once in college and remember a bill arriving that was over 300 bucks. It's so ridiculous.
I've always been a little hesitant to see Michael Moore movies (I blame living with Steve Heffley). However, I think I really should see this one. Cori has told me some really sad stories over the years and it's well over due for something to be done about it.
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