Anyone else see "Sicko"?

It's constantly out of our local video rental stores. We went to Canada last summer, interviewed everyone we met--sign me up for the Canadian system! Not perfect, but beats US by a long shot. The CEO of my insurance provider received $380,000,000 upon retirement while my rates went up 15% (and I count myself lucky--could have been higher, and I pay thru my job).



Looking forward to seeing Sicko.



Health care is a basic human right.



Take care,

--Hattie

My husband and I went to see this during the summer...dubbed in Italian.



I was so embarrassed for the US health system....he was so shocked! His comments .... "I'm very frightened for our family in US if this is even a little bit true." He also said .... "It's not good, certainly, that you were diagnosed with cancer, but you are in the right place for treatment now (meaning here in Italy)". "Health care is a right".



He's right and the "system" failed the citizens of our country....because we the citizens voted far to much with our pockets instead of our social conscious.



Maybe like the addict it is...the system needs to hit bottom before it can come back.





And the CNN political debates....I thought a debate was moderated by unbiased, well educated public servants, and that the questions were equally distributed for all candidates to be heard. OK so Biden has an ego problem...but he was the only one who responded directly to the people with tenured knowledge .... and Dennis .... so he won't make the "most anything" list .... but he responded intelligently with little self interest and more public interest...or isn't that what an elected official is suppose to be. Obabma .... I wanted so much to hear more substance because I think that he has the character to reach it...but...not this round anyway. Hillary and Edwards....how thin were the answers....and I resent that Hillary makes this a women's issue....it's a broken system issue regardless of gender.



I'm not a politician and never was it my strong point in business negotiations (healthcare, thus my retirement) .....



It's time for another Truman ....



I thought a lot about America and the people. They (we) are a hardy bunch....truly....creative...industrious...all of the platitudes we are known for. It's only that our dark side has come to roost and we need the strength to put it in rehab. And they (we) are still capable to work this problem out.



I read too the stock options of the United health care CEO in the WSJ...yes, and the policy holders are paying for that ....because the money raised on the free market to support the "business" went into the "business of being an executive" rather than the "business of healthcare". We need an equalizer to this equation. Find the policy maker who supports a change without collapsing the system, and you'll have a win win for the future.



Boy this is a painful subject.

Yes, and I cried too.



If you think the healthcare system is broke.....watch what they are doing to water.....!!! How long until it is US of Darfur?

It's a strange thing....a few years ago when my sister-in-law lived here she had to have her gallbladder removed.  She did not have healthcare insurance, nor did she have medicaid.  Some one did it for free.  Hmmmm...musta been a nice surgeon.

I used to take her to Duke's clinic for people who did not have healthcare or who only had medicare or medicaid.  They only charged by your income.  They gave her free medicine (antidepressants, HRT, and something else..can't remember).  However, since they never found anything "wrong" with her (and I took her there several times), she decided not to pay them.  AND, I even took her to the main hospital for tests.

I am very fortunate to have healthcare.  It costs us and it's going to cost us more next year.  A LOT MORE!!  AT&T bought out Bell South and things surely changed.  I've already griped about this, but there's nothing we can do about it.  I should just be grateful that we even have insurance.

Yes, our healthcare system needs to be fixed.  However, I do not think Michael Moore has the answers.  And I won't watch his movie.

I don't trust the government with my healthcare either.  I know someone here on this very board who's husband just retired from the Navy and she has had a helluva time getting a doctor to treat her BECAUSE the government gave them crappy insurance.  When they reach Medicare age I believe most doctors will then take their insurance as supplementary. 

I do not want the government telling me where I can go.  It may not start off that way, but I'm afraid if they get their hands on our healthcare we won't be happy.

I shoulda kept my mouth shut!  I should have followed my intuition.

Shirley

Shirley,



I agree with you and I think your intuitions are very good.



Opinionated as I am, I think that it's not possible for any ONE person or society or government or whatever to have THE answer. Life if far too dynamic for that to be possible. Instead there needs to be agreement of shared values, basic human rights. This was the basis for the establishment of Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the courts of the Hague, surely the healthcare system of the US can create something similar.



The problem is the scales are imbalanced at this point in our history....the rich and poor are at extremes...it's globalized.



I don't have the answers either....but a redistribution of wealth would be a good place to start since the middle class of the USA was excised.



.....about your sister-in-law....I'm very glad to hear that she received the care needed. I'm not certain that I understood well why she didn't feel a need to pay anything for the care, was she from a country that provide this type of care to their citizens?



There are many people who receive care in spite of the "contract terms" that put barriers to this. I (as a representative of the doctors I worked for) was always willing, and indeed felt it my responsibility, to find the resources to do this. But in the mid 80's, the Federal government changed the payment to hospitals for services...this began a cascade of insurance company efforts to extort (they called it negotiate) as much money as possible from both the employers/patients in premiums and from the doctors in reimbursement. This (squeeze) dynamic was compounded by malpractice insurance premiums going through the roof for payment of cases (often patient fraud) that even a TV show would shoot holes in.....but malpractice made headlines, took doctors away from their practice to defend themselves, and the cost just spiraled.



Were there doctors and nurses who needed to be culled? Absolutely. Was it ALL doctors and nurses? Absolutely Not. But instead to weed them out, they layered a one size fits all solution, an embargo of sorts...and all suffered.....even the innocent.....it only got worse when HMO's came into being.



People with means no longer wanted to pay for people without means...and those terms were very difficult to define. Somehow the philanthropic philosophy was no longer shared by the majority. The "Hospital of the Sick and InJured" became the "Hospital of the Sick and InSured". Where once the poor were cared in hospital....a place of disease and the insane....and the rich cared in their homes (1770's Ben Franklin Philadelphia)...in three centuries of growth and prosperity the principle reversed to find five star hotel accommodations in hospital and the poor lost access and stayed at home...without the visit of a doctor.



Hospital CEO's who once earned the salary between a doctor and a nurse and walked the halls with the staff to see first hand the needs of the institution...they were replaced by the new breed who were organizing for "the greater good" which usually was their bonus. Negotiations were about "market share" and "product line" instead of community needs and public health.



The politicians .... they only wanted to be elected.



Shirley, it's just not right. People aren't put on this earth for the sole purpose to feed bottom line of the corporation.



Hummmm, I'd love to see a report that provides the amount of Charity given yearly....by doctor, by hospital, by pharmaceutical/equipment/supplies co., insurance co., .... and by the way ... the definition of Charity would be that of Acceptable Accounting Terms....not some white wash spin doctor from Washington.



It's not a hard spreadsheet to build....where is the money going? really? take away the need for advertising, marketing, fancy packaging beyond safety needs, and monopoly manufactures of clinical products that result in high prices for lack of competition....on and on.



It's very complicated....but doable....it only takes the political and social will of the good old US of A.



OK I'll stop now....

My $.02--

I saw Sicko, and have seen Michael Moore's other films, too.  In my opinion, while his films have a good bit of truth to them, he tends to gloss over huge issues (US health care, in this instance) and provide flimsy, quick-fix solutions to them.  Having said that, he's very entertaining, he's a smart guy, and he certainly gets people talking about critical issues...he doesn't sanitize anything like the presidential candidates seem to do, as Blundin 2005 mentioned.  (This presidential campaign seems to have been going on for years instead of months...ack.)

Our health care system sucks, but I thank God every day for BCBS.  I get those explanation of benefits things by the fistful every day, and the amounts the ins. co. was billed by various drs., labs, etc. just blows me away.  If I had to foot the bill myself, I'd have been flat broke about two weeks after my diagnosis in July.  I understand that over half the bankruptcies in the US are due to ridiculously high medical bills...and most of those people are insured.  Sad, huh?!

I've heard good things about the gov't. run medical systems in other countries such as Canada...the big drawback I've read about is long wait times to get appts. to see specialists.  Is that the case most of the time?  While I think there's a lot of merit to such a system, right now I sure don't trust the US gov't. to handle such a huge enterprise; I wouldn't trust it to hand out Tylenol at this point.

Michael Moore...gotta love him!  Oops...more like $.05.

Lynn

I have heard about it, good and bad.  I won't watch it, because I can't stand Michael Moore.  I am sure he has valid points on our healthcare system...just can't get past my dislike for him.

I am very fortunate.  I am on an HMO plan at work.  Thank God, it is good insurance.  I have had 3 surgeries, tx's, doctor visits, scrips..and I have paid very little out of pocket.  Even my Neulasta shot which was almost $3000.00, did not cost me a penny, and it was mailed to my home!! Maybe all HMO's are not bad.  I can only speak from my experience.

Shirley the Government doesn't tell us where to go, I choose where to go.  Thats why I was misdiagnosed I went to a large clinic that had there own offices and equipment. If I would have known how bad they were I would have gone to a hospital or womens clinic instead but I was new to the city and it was a block from home. You can pick and choose.  When my friend Diane had cancer she moved from Nunavit to Red Lake and had no problem.  I can understand how you feel though I remember when I worked for a Municipality and they changed our drug plan, instead of direct through the pharmacist  they decided it was cheaper to have the scripts go through the office in personal and I raised hell. I remember saying I don't wan't anyone in this office knowing if I have a yeast infection I was afraid of change. But it all did work out with no problems. But all I hear up here is that people are more worried about their health care plans and payments and keeping them than who they want to vote for, because the costs are just going up and up. Change is scary but sometimes it really works.

we have a real problem in canada with what we (health care professionals) often refer to as "dumping syndrome" ........... because our health care is so accessible it has become common place for families who do not wish to 'place' their loved one in a long term care facility (d/t cost or ethnic belief or whatever rationale) so whenever they need a break from the caregiver stress at home, the family brings them to ER and subsequently gets a much needed vacation/break while we fill an acute care bed with diagnosis like "failure to thrive" or (my favourite) "abdominal not yet diagnosed" or "rule out dehydration" etc. etc. .................. as soon as the pattern is recognized and the family is approached to "place" the patient, miraculously they want to bring the patient back home and the cycle repeats itself over and over again.

so, that being said ........... our health care system is far from perfect, but IMHO it beats the hell out of the alternatives ......... and please know that before i realized i wasn't immortal i was raring to go .......... sell my house, pack our things and be on the first plane to 'anywhere but here' ......... now that i have been dealt this shitty hand i've had cause to truly research my options and i really could never ever afford to live the lifestyle i aspire to if i had to fork over as much money as ya'll do in the U.S.!

............ my heart lives in the florida keys, always will ........... but my head lives out here in the boonies where i know i can live a debt free existence while i freeze my ass off lol! 

I haven't seen Sicko, but I've heard a lot about it and seen a few excerpts.  It seems to me that he did his usual thing of exageration for effect.   But he exagerates the things that are really there.

I do know health care in Ontario as I have spent years of in research of family practice and employed in acute and chronic care hospitals in quality assurance.

ER waiting times are neither 20 minutes nor 12 hours for 99% of people walking into an ER in Ontario.  They can fluctuate wildly, but the average range is about one and a half to 3 hours from in the door to out the door.  If a specialist has to be called in, it will take longer.   That is the situation in cities of some size in Ontario - ERs in small hospitals in rural areas have a different situation.

"Millions of people are dying waiting in line"  That's one of the lies about the Canadian system I've read recently.  There are waits for some procedures, joint replacements most notably.  The bottom line is that everyone who needs immediate care in Canada is dealt with and the elective stuff is put in line. In the US it seems that everyone with money is dealt with immediately,  those without money get the necessities done and the elective just doesn't get done.

Hypochondriacs are not a big problem in a public system.  I was part of a study of 3000 randomly selected family practice patients in Ontario.  We found 1 person who clearly was a candidate for that Munchausen (sp) syndrome.  The big users are various chronic conditions - diabetes and high blood pressure for example.

The government does control my health care to the extent that it decides what procedures, tests, drugs will be funded.  But my doctors do not have to go to anyone to get approval for each test they decide I need.  It just gets done.  Nor does the government tell me which doctor I must see, I don't have to worry about whether they are part of the HMO group or approved by my insurer.

The Canadian system isn't perfect - no one is but I sure prefer it to the US one.

i