Moore useful infomation: Reviewing Sicko

(warning: don't read the whole thing if plan to see Sicko!  You can read the beginning though...and the end...)

I work full time in a high tech job. I have insurance through my employer and I pay 15% of my health insurance costs.  I have a chipped tooth – I have had it for years but I do need it capped to prevent long term problems. Next week it will cost me $430.50 for a dental procedure that will last less than one hour.  Last month I had a small growth on my face. I went to the dermatologist just to be sure that it wasn’t dangerous. After less than 30 seconds the doctor said that it was just a cist.  That cost me $50.00. So I ask you, do I really have health insurance?  Should I care if my taxes increase if our government takes control of our healthcare system?

Since we so rarely get the chance to take in a mainstream documentary that exposes little known truths about very serious problems, I was excited to see Michael Moore’s latest work: Sicko.

Of course, Moore turned the healthcare industry (by the way, don’t you hate that our healthcare is actually a commercial industry from which many people extrude large profits) upside down and embarrassed them left and right. Not very difficult - but that wasn’t the only significance of the film. 

Moore stormed through foreign countries: Canada, France and Cuba and exposed the myths and the lies perpetrated by our government and our media. In these countries we saw conservative citizens explaining how socialized healthcare is not only morally necessary but it is efficient and effective – if you want it to be so.  Moore, the consummate cynic, asked one man why he would pay for someone else’s healthcare. The man responded by saying that he would want the same if it were him in need of medical attention.  Sicko points out that our library system is socialized. As is our postal system and our fire departments - all run by the government. Do they work?  If we want them to work they do work. 

If we permit our politicians and our corporate leaders to label socialized healthcare as “big government out of control”, and we let our friends and our families repeat after them, then we let them and the corporations they represent win big.  Big government is not inherently bad. Ineffective government is inherently bad.  Today, we are run by a very ineffective federal government that seems to be going out of its way to prove by example that anything run by the government is bad.  That’s what you get you when you give control of the government to a group of people who don’t believe in government.

So do other people want universal healthcare, or is this just that crazy liberal, Michael Moore out on an island?  Let's look at a CBS News/NY Times poll from earlier this year:

The US Healthcare system needs:
Minor changes: 8%
Fundamental changes: 54%
To be completely rebuilt: 36%

Comments

[granny]

Some added material: I am the fortunate recipient of medicare. Fortunate, because I cannot get coverage on my own. The "health care industry" giants, have rejection responses to my applications such as this: "Doesn't take perscribed medication for condition" AND...later, "Takes medication for chronic condition" ...'nuf said there.

NOW, recently I went to a dentist (not covered by Medicare) to get my teeth cleaned. Dentist took x-rays, said I needed two fillings. Okay. (That won't be covered either, of course) During process of fillings, and injection of Novacain entire jaw muscle on one side is seized up, excrutiatingly painful, and no longer functional...

NOW, come the specialists. (The specialist has opted out of Medicare ~ as, I hasten to add, have a great many Doctors in this part of the country) $$$ Ding. Ding. Ding. Now, Almost 8 weeks later, I am still in physical therapy, (which Medicare puts an annual cap on - ALL physical therapy, not each problem) and am looking at three more weeks of therapy, at least.

Just fyi

[George]

I'm really sorry to hear all that. It's a terrible injustice and totally immoral. I truly hope that if Barack Obama is elected, or another Democrat perhaps, that we will build the finest universal health care system in the world and stories like this will go away.

Until then you should take a trip to Canada and see if Michael Moore's film is accurate.

Personal note: Because of a long list of sports injuries I am very familiar with physical therapy. I have been to many different therapists and with just one exception I see that PT is a big fucking scam. You see the main therapist the first time you go then you deal with his assistants for the next 6 weeks. They don't know a thing. They over-schedule patients and it's not in their interest to actually improve your condition. So my take is this: go a few times, get the exercises and stretches down and do the rest yourself. It'll save a ton of time too - you just need to be disciplined. Although you dont get the massages...

[Tony]

I have heard of some opposing views on socialized medicine, and some made sense(I don't have the links or documentation at this point). But just like the immigration issue, "something" needs to be done. On both issues I believe they should take a group of highly intelligent scientists, mathematicians, humanitarians etc and lay out the facts and make the decisions. I choose this type of group because they deal in absolutes. The facts. (the humanitarians because they care).

"Personal" opinions on just about every issue suck. As an example would be; everyone that thinks "we shouldn't have any illegal immigrants here and should get rid of them"

the estimates are 12-20 million. the proof of why that opinion sucks is simple "HOW do you get rid of them"?

My point is there aren't too many people qualified on The Hill or even in the general population that are qualified to "do the math" on many issues.

I don't think one single human being should be turned away from medical attention. And beware of the polls...I watched a segment where they interviewed a founder of a polling company. He explained how they can manipulate the polls.

EXAMPLE
Q: Do you think the American people should pay for illegal immigrants medical care?

A: No (overwhelming percentage said "no")

Rephrased.
Q: Do you think an Illegal immigrant child should be turned away from receiving medical care?

A: No.

So this poll could be posted

1. "85% of Americans polled don't think we should pay for illegal immigrants medical care"
or
2. 85% of Americans polled think we should pay for illegal immigrants medical care"

I say everyone gets medical care, which in my opinion is a different issue than immigration.

[George]

Tony, I'd be interested to hear opposition views against socialized medicine, however usually they either:
1) assume that the govt will screw it up. This is false. It depends on "who" the government is. (If it is Bush, he would in fact screw it up.) Or,
2) assume that a market driven solution is better. This is what we have today, so I'll refer to the poll I posted originally (to which the question was pretty straightforward in this case).

And I agree with your suggestion that scientists should be running more stuff. I'm sick of this country being run mostly by former military men and by lawyers.

[Tony]

i'll poke around and see what i can find. i just don't think there are many qualified "politicians" which could come up with the "do's and don't's" and in general the way socialized medicine should work.

the scientific community (in general) respect the opposing opinions of others. they may not like working on a theory for 25 years and being proved wrong, but they won't lie to make "their" opinion right.

[Mac]

You know George, for some people the issue with government programs is even less intellectual than the assumptions you state. It's just a knee-jerk fear of control that - with desperate irony - was played upon by rich capitalists, the corporate media and their paid 'government' stooges to scare Americans away from the government that THE PEOPLE WERE SUPPOSED TO CONTROL.

When I right-winger says "You don't want the government making decisions for you, do you?", then either:

a) they are saying "You don't want you making decisions for you, do you?", or;

b) America, as described by Lincoln ("Government of the people, by the people, for the people.") NO LONGER EXISTS.

If "b" holds, then it seems to me that the following clause becomes applicable:
--------------------------
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
------------------------

The only response to a right-winger who says "You don't want the government making decisions for you, do you?" is "we are the government". And if that is actually not the case, due to the need for wealth and patronage to enter the political process, etc., then we should recognize that AMERICA HAS BEEN CONQUERED. A coup from within, of our homegrown aristocracy, has reestablished the oligarchy of the old European feudal system that our Founding Fathers had hoped to leave behind forever.

[George]

Thanks Mac,
I do like the logic, however based on this logic the government should just run everything, no? And I most definitely don't want to jump to that conclusion. And I'm sure that's not your point anyway. However, the government should definitely run things that the private sector has clearly failed to succeed in, especially health care, which holds the fate of millions of lives in its hands.

[granny]

Nice commentary on sports medicine, George. And in that specific catagory "Sports Medicine"/ Orthopedic-Sports Clinics, I have had the same experience exactly.It was really hair raising. When I landed in one of those places with a major need, I got a once over lightly, and sent off to scheduling where they had a "first opening" two weeks from then...never with the same person twice; no clue or care to have one, no examination by a doctor. I couldn't believe it; and got out.

There are alternative kinds of places though, and I am very lucky to have been sent to one for this current problem. I see the same person every time, and she is legitimately trained in this specific area of work. And without her, I don't see that I'd have gotten any help at all ... "surgery" always the "answer", you know. So I'm very strong on physical therapy, but you have to find people who really have the training and run a place that specializes in therarpy, not a "program"...