If you have enough money to kill someone, then you have enough money to help them.
- Tony Benn, former British Labour MP
I finally saw Sicko yesterday, and I came away quite impressed and highly disturbed. If you don’t leave the film wondering where this country went wrong, you really need to have yourself checked out, because you’ve clearly lost your heart and your sense of community. During the movie, Michael Moore asked a very simple question that to me summed up the entire 113 minutes: “Is this what we’ve become?” When did we become OK with a system in which your access to health care is dependent upon your income and your ability to fight the system? When did patients stop being human beings and become profit centers? When a desperately poor country like Cuba can guarantee their citizens free, universal health care with no strings attached, why can’t the US do the same thing? If we can wage an endless and expensive war of occupation in Iraq, why can’t we take care of people here at home- taxpaying American citizens who shouldn’t have to make medical decisions based on cost?
Perhaps the problem here is that health care in the US has become a multi-BILLION dollar industry. While the free market can and does have certain pronounced advantages when it comes to innovation, the flip side is that we’re saddled with an industry that has a significant incentive to deny needed medical in the name of profit. If you live in Canada, France, or England, and you need medical care, you can get it. If you live in the US, the most powerful nation in the world, your medical care may be dependent upon someone sitting in a cubicle who is being incented on his or her ability and willingness to deny access to (sometimes life-saving) medical procedures.
If you listen to the Right-wing fear-mongers in this country, you’d be forgiven for thinking that socialized medicine is a horrible boondoggle, where people wait untold months for needed medical procedures. Sure, it’s not a perfect system (and ours is??), but by and large socialized medicine works. People in Canada, France, and England get the care they need when they need it- in most cases without undue waiting periods. Healthcare is viewed as a universal right, not a meritocracy based on income and insurance coverage.
Frankly, I’d like those who would have us live in mortal fear of socialized medicine to provided a workable alternative. Clearly, our system is broken, and while the talking heads who spin the facts on behalf of Humana, Cigna, and Kaiser Permanente, etc., etc., no doubt have adequate health care at their disposal, there are millions of Americans without insurance who live in fear of the time when they might have to make a medical decision based on cost and not what’s best for them.
If we can afford to kill people halfway around the world, then surely we can find a way to care for the people here at home. It’s not about socialism, and it’s not about putting government in charge of health care- though that might be the answer. It’s about simple human decency and caring for all Americans as if their health and well-being actually mattered. It’s about treating patients like human beings and not like profit centers. It’s about limiting the power of health-care and drug companies so that doctors can treat patients instead of engaging in cost-benefit analyses in life-and-death situations.
Sicko is not entertainment, but neither is it political. This documentary is remarkably free of the Left-wing polemics that those on the Right would have you believe are part and parcel of the movie’s message. Yes, there’s a story to be told here, but it’s not told from an ideological perspective; it’s told from a human perspective…and that’s what makes Sicko so powerful.
I left Sicko feeling ashamed to be an American. I live in a country in which we have a seemingly endless amount of money with which to kill human beings, but not nearly enough to address the medical needs of ALL Americans. We should be able to expect better…but then there’s no profit in that, is there?
I have individual insurance. Years ago I broke both arms on a job. My insurance company told me I wasn't insured for accidents...Wha? I had to hire a lawyer before they would take me seriously. Thankfully it all worked out but I had to pay a lawyer three grand to get me there.
Our deductable is four thousand dollars. The in-network is one thousand. The out-of-network is three thousand. You can call every in-network providor in the network book. They are not accepting new patients.
I had a broken shoulder in France. The charges were $35.
Who is kidding who?
Our deductable is four thousand dollars. The in-network is one thousand. The out-of-network is three thousand. You can call every in-network providor in the network book. They are not accepting new patients.
I had a broken shoulder in France. The charges were $35.
Who is kidding who?
The issues here are pretty clear. The ones who benefit are the drug companies, the specialist physicians, and the insurance companies. Hospitals can't keep their doors open yet most folks have trouble, as noted above, getting routine medical issues taken care of. We are bankrupting ourselves with medical expenses, yet have one of the least productive systems in the world.
Sooner or later, I hope we will come to our senses. I'm optimistic that maybe all it takes is something as simple as 60 Democratic Senators and a Democratic president. But big money killed change last time it came up for serious debate and may well do it again.
I'm doubtful that more government involvement will do any good, regardless of which direction it takes. Continued motion towards a "single-payer" or socialized medical system will be shaped and formed by the same entities that are responsible for the current cost/benefit ratio. Conversely, any real movement in the free market direction is likely to be inhibited by the same nefarious forces.
The FDA is big pharma's best buddy. The Doctors Union (AMA) is very protective of its members, and executives of insurance companies, HMOs, and large hospital corporations are very well paid. All of these special interest groups are substantial contributors to congressional campaigns. And they expect a return on their investments.
These folks point fingers right and left, but let's face it, they are the chief beneficiaries of the status quo, and are in a position of power when it comes to "reform."
I'd get all philosophical about the right ways to improve health care, but Milton Friedman's birthday isn't until July 31st.
It's the year 2007, Bob. We can stop using terms and scare tactics from the 1950's. It's not "socialized medicine". No more socialized than Medicare or Medicaid, programs we've had for decades. No more socialized than our federal housing programs or meat inspection or highway construction or farm subsidies.
Still, you do accurately describe the actors. The question is, will our elected representatives rise to the occasion and be able to represent our interests rather than those who give them the most money?
Bravo, Dennis. We already have a single payer system in the U$A; the only problem is that it's available only for people 65 years of age and over. Medicare is not socialized medicine: it is (like Social Security and unemployment insurance) social insurance, which is universal insurance covering independent risks for all citizens without exception and financed by contributions (taxes) that are not related to benefits. Pooling resources so that everyone shares the major risks of life--and free market failures--is the essence of social insurance. I am still amazed that this country ever managed to enact such superb social legislation as Social Security and Medicare. I guess the elections of 1934 and 1964, which produced massive Democratic majorities in Congress, were the only reasons why. One can obnly wonder whether a single -payer system will ever be even introduced to Congress...
My local hospital is over run by illegal Brazilians and career welfare Puerto Ricans that love the convenience of using this resource as their primary care center. This way most of us who have insurance and more serious ailments, other than a fever or a belly ache have to either wait for 4-6 hours or be on the receiving end of over-extended service.
Then on the other hand, Canada and England suffer from having public hospitals that parallel 3rd world medical tents. In England folks are desperate to afford private insurance so not to have to go to public providers. In Canada, hahaha, we’ll its Canada, you should poll a couple of good old, mustache wearing, Canadian boyz and ask them about their national health care. Hahaha! You people need to get out more, there is a world out there beyond the media.
You know how stories go… sometimes people complain about not being covered and come to find out they were on a job that didn’t have the state required Workman’s Comp. Insurance, which complicated their coverage. Sometimes people use the word ‘every’ and come to find out they really meant 2 or 3, hahaha!! People crack me up. I know that health plan deductibles are dependent on the monthly premium cost, if you want a lower deductible you pay a higher premium. Sucks when you can’t double-dip.
I have health insurance; I pay for my premium every month and have no problems. I go to doctors, referred specialists, emergency rooms, whatever I need, and no problems. I pay for monthly dues and my co-pays. This is how things work for every person I know that has health insurance.
Why is it that we always seem to find complainers getting interviewed or polled? Hahaha! I also love it when people claim to have to alter their travel plans due to the rising costs of gas. Thanks God my family’s travel plans don’t hinge on my 20 gallon tank that with a increase of 50 cents per gallon will set me back $10 bucks. Can we find someone besides dumb@$$ Americans to represent the US public?
Let’s make a movie about the millions of happy people that have health insurance whose premiums go up because of social leaches and dead beats. Hey, immigrants love this country's terrible health system. Hahaha!
Dennis, much of what Milton Friedman said in 1980 is still quite valid today, and I'm glad we agree on who the players are. However, since "socialized medicine" is definitely dated, I should probably start calling the concept "Universal Health Care."
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