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| A little late: A movie review. |
| 01.21.09 (10:20 am) [edit] |
Good morning Boys and Girls.Last week at home, on one of the days the weather had been predicted to be - and was - so bad, that I'd decided not to go out at all, I spent much of the day half-watching a bunch of documentaries I'd rented the day before at Blockbuster. I finally got around to seeing Michael Moore's "Sicko", which I'd intended to see when it came out, but never did. Like him or hate him, to discount, or dismiss, the points Michael Moore makes in his films is pretty silly. Yes, I know. Michael Moore is NOT a journalist. Yes, I know. Michael Moore makes his movies to illustrate points of view he's already cultivated before he starts. I know this. I also know he's rarely off base on even the smallest of points, and that certainly his larger themes tend to be spot on; this despite his many critics and the venom he regularly absorbs from those who REALLY hate him. So: See "Sicko" if you haven't. Watch it all the way through. It's truly worth the time. It's entertaining, depressing, and finally, in the strangest of ways, uplifting. His premise is that we can and should have Universal Health Care in this country, and that the arguments against it are largely spurious; something I've long believed. He makes his point by actually visiting hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and the like in Canada, England, France and even Cuba. He effectively argues that the scares used as political fodder here, by the medical machine lobby about care being less than top-notch, and with long waits for even the most serious of operations in countries who've adopted Universal Heath Care (every other Western Democracy, by the way), are simply bogus. He interviews citizens, doctors, other health care workers, most of whom are appalled by the U.S. system - where money determines who gets the best care. The one point he doesn't make effectively that I wish he had is this: If we took the profit motive out of medical care in this country - which would mean eliminating not only every dollar of profit made by insurance companies, but also every dollar of salary and bonuses made to each and every one of their employees - and did away completely with the costs of medical billing in hospitals, doctors' offices, and clinics - the costs of medical care in this country would be reduced by MORE than half. I have a friend with a small dermatology practice near Port Huron, Michigan. Hers is a one Doctor office. She's only there three days a week, including Saturdays, because she teaches at a medical school in Detroit the rest of the time. She has a nurse, a part time medical assistant and THREE full-time billers, all of whom work at the office even on days she's not there. All they do is billing, re-billing and submitting, and resubmitting claim forms to insurance companies in a continuous effort to get her office paid for the work they've done. Interestingly, she gets paid regularly and without too much fanfare by Medicare and Medicaid. She once told me that for every dollar that ends up in the office bank account, she's billed about two-fifty - and that's before she's paid the people who go through the tooth pulling process of extracting that cash in the first place. Insurance companies are responsible to their stock-holders. It stands to reasons that, along with denying as many claims as they possibly can from their policy holders, they'll wrench money from the other side too. It is SOooooo absurd. Universal Health Care would be more expensive than our current system? Um. No way. It's good propaganda to make the claim - along with the "We'll be full-fledged Socialists in no time if we go down this road!" - but it's just not so. Never has been. Never will be. Pure bull, my friends. Stupid. Short-sighted. Wrong. Be good to everyone. |
posted by: alaskawildflowers (reply)
post date: 01.21.09 (9:24 am)
Hawaii has figured out how to provide health care for everyone, so we know it can be done. My sister had $120,000+ worth of hospital/ medical bills last year, for which she was covered, because her partner works for the city. But when her partner retires in the next year or two, my sister will no longer have coverage. I have no coverage-- so everyday when I get out of bed I say, "I have good chi."
posted by: bawdy (reply)
post date: 01.21.09 (1:01 pm)
It can be sobering when people find out they are not covered when they thought otherwise, and insurance companies will go to great lengths to avoid getting you proper treatment. Moore did gloss over the Canadian situation though.
posted by: surrogate (reply)
post date: 01.21.09 (2:34 pm)
Reply to: bawdy
I'm sure he did, but I have tons of Canadian friends, some of whom love their system, and some of them who think it needs tweaking. None of them, that I know of anyway, have ever said they'd prefer to have what we have. What's your opinion? You've certainly dealt with it.
posted by: auntconi (reply)
post date: 01.21.09 (9:14 pm)
I have a Canadian who was dealing with cancer of the breast. Her 'Canadian plan' would not see her for two months and when it was confirmed that it was cancer and she should have surgery it was scheduled 'six months away' ~ she elected to go to New York for surgery and 'paid for it herself' ~ in her case money is not a problem, but that is not the case for most of the people. I think that is horrible!
posted by: auntconi (reply)
post date: 01.21.09 (9:15 pm)
~ oops ~ that should be a CANADIAN RELATIVE!
posted by: surrogate (reply)
post date: 01.21.09 (9:55 pm)
Reply to: auntconi
Even if that's EXACTLY the way it happened, it doesn't mean we can't do it better. We just have to have the will to do it.
posted by: auntconi (reply)
post date: 01.22.09 (1:47 am)
Reply to: surrogate
Well that is how it happened, and it was four years ago ~ and she lives outside of Toronto ~ but perhaps we could do it better ~ something has to give the working people a break.
posted by: bawdy (reply)
post date: 01.22.09 (1:13 pm)
Reply to: surrogate
I think we have it better than many, many Americans, but we have a serious shortage of doctors that needs addressing.
Cost of the War in Iraq
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