Can Sicko Influence Healthcare Reform?
Call Michael Moore what you will, but if he can persuade Americans to improve our healthcare system, he will have succeeded where many others have failed.
Michael Moore takes a lot of heat for his showboating. Even before the release of his latest film, Sicko, he was attacked for taking 9/11 rescue workers to Cuba to get medical treatment that the federal government had refused to provide. Like most Moore stunts, it made his point—while simultaneously eroding his credibility. But at a recent sneak preview of the film, it was clear that for all his bombast and ego, Moore has developed a cinematic style that can bring radical ideas to mass audiences. With Sicko, he's tapping into popular outrage over health care just as national and state politicians are weighing in with proposals for reform. It may be Moore's best shot yet of actually influencing policy.
Sicko's Sacramento premiere, sponsored by the California nurses' union, offered an unusual opportunity to march to a movie theater from a protest rally. Earlier in the day, Moore and three of Sicko's protagonists were star witnesses at a state Senate briefing on health care reform. Before a roomful of nurses wearing red Sicko-themed scrubs, Moore began his testimony with genuine humility, describing how the film grew out of a short segment on Bravo about a man who had a necessary pancreas transplant denied by his HMO, which resulted in the HMO approving the transplant. "I began to think at that moment," Moore explained, "if we could save one man's life in ten minutes with nothing more than this tool, this camera and a microphone, what else could we do?"
His testimony reached a crescendo when he declared, "We're the only country in the western world that doesn't believe it is a human right to provide free universal health coverage for every one of its citizens. And we're the only country—this is what is so amazing, isn't it? Because we're all Americans….We're a good people, we have a good heart and a good soul and we have a conscience…. [But we] allow 9 million of our children to go uninsured…. What is wrong with us? That's not who we are, that's not what we used to be about!" Moore didn't just tap into his usual patriotic populism; he also sang California's praises and urged the state to "lead the way again." During his testimony, most people in the audience cried, gave a standing ovation, or both.
Moore didn't come to California's capital just to advocate for insuring more Americans. The sneak preview was offered in support of a bill by State Senator Sheila Kuehl that would create a single-payer system in the state, the only one of four reform proposals now on the table that would do so. Moore is clearly also hoping that his film will fuel a national push toward government-funded healthcare. For that reason, Sicko avoids stories about the uninsured and instead focuses on the tragedies profit-driven private insurance companies cause among insured, middle-class Americans. But a single-payer system is a hard sell. So, while Sicko indulges in its expected share of grandstanding and emotional manipulation to make its point, Moore had to employ his significant powers of persuasion—whether earnest or manipulative—to give his film a shot at affecting health care policy.
Sicko profiles Americans who are forced into financial despair, illness, or death by the unjust limitations of their health insurance programs. It presents tear-jerking tragedies like those of Dawnelle Keys, whose 18-month-old daughter died of an infection treatable with antibiotics after Kaiser refused to authorize payment at the "out-of-network" hospital to which the ambulance rushed her. Moore's long shot of the worn—and noticeably thin—scrapbook that is all Keys has left of her daughter manages to balance emotional theatrics with genuine tenderness.
Moore also milks the humor of insurance-company irrationality. Sicko features Becky Malke, an employee at an insurance call center, who tearfully explains how she must reject applications from anyone with illnesses on a list of disqualifying preexisting conditions. "How long is that list?" Moore asks. Malke answers sheepishly, "It's pretty long." Cue up the Star Wars theme song as the encyclopedic list scrolls up the screen and into outer space. Another woman tells how her ambulance ride from a car accident to the hospital was denied because she failed to have it preapproved. The audience's knowing laughter drives home the point that most Americans—even those who become apoplectic at the idea of a single-payer system—are fed up with insurance companies' Kafkaesque bureaucracies.
For contrast, Moore interviews happy, healthy Europeans and Canadians who express satisfaction with their government-funded systems. Unexpectedly, the film's most persuasive emotional note was hit by the dry humor generated by their bafflement at our plight. The film opens with the story of an American man who cut off two fingertips with a circular saw. Uninsured, he can only afford to reattach one. Later, Moore meets a Canadian who cut off four fingers entirely. He was rushed to the hospital and underwent 24 hours of surgery; all four were successfully reattached. As Moore tells him about his American counterpart, the camera zooms in on the man's brow: a tiny, confused furrow. The audience doesn't need any more to burst into brittle laughter.
Still, it's hard not to see Moore as self-aggrandizing at times. The film includes a long shot of him floating in a powerboat at the edge of Guantanamo Bay, flanked by 9/11 rescue workers, using a bullhorn to reason with an apparently empty watchtower. Moore declares that he's only asking that the rescue workers receive the same for the same preventive care that the government gives the Gitmo detainees. There's also a scene where Moore documents his "anonymous" payment to the author of the anti-Moore website, Moorewatch.com. In the filmmaker's version, his detractor had announced that he would have to choose between maintaining the site and paying for his sick wife's mounting health insurance premiums. (The detractor has not been mollified and slams Moore's version as yet another self-serving misrepresentation.)
But Moore deserves credit for pioneering the documentary film as a genre capable of mass appeal and for using his films as engines for change. Sicko may just prove a more effective catalyst than Farenheit 9/11. The takeaway message of that film—that George W. Bush is a bad president and the United States shouldn't ally itself with Saudi Arabia—was far less inspirational than Sicko's call for Americans to take pride in their country by helping one another. Moore certainly has the public's attention; it will be fascinating to see if he manages to sell enough conservatives on his message to force politicians to offer more than a Band-Aid for the healthcare crisis.
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This will end up like all the rest of Michael Moores films.
He will make a lot of money of it but it won't help change a thing.
I haven't seen the film but if Moore is advocating a single payer system, I hope he spent time dissecting the wasteful components of the for-profit insurance based system with all the hand-offs and administrative processing, not to mention the obvious profit margin.
I hope he succeeds, within the UK we already suffer from USA inspired "free market" erosion of our health and liberties. Our kids are becoming less healthy due to USA "fast food" influences - time to improve matters - fast.
In a country that spends so much on the benefit of the citizens America should provide for the people and lead the rest of the world to care for its citizens
Americans should be able to buy affordable catastrophy insurance. Small medical bills, like a visit to the doctor, they should pay for themselves
As a physician and a political conservative, it gauls me to say so, but Michael Moore is correct in many of his obversations, and this film might actually accomplish something. I wish he would be as forthcoming with solutions as he is with the problems. We in the profession know all about the issues he is exposing. We just don't know how to get to solutions. I suspect he doesn't know either. For instance, it is no surprise to me, as an ER physician, that criminals get better health care than their victims. But in a legal system where criminals can sue the justice system for their health outcomes, whereas the victim can only sue the criminal, that is the logical outcome. One has to change the underlying fabric of the legal system. Let's see Michael Moore take on that problem.
The U.S. leads the world with the most innovative developments in minimally invasive, endolumenal, and no scar procedures. New devices and techniques are driven by clinical and economic needs, yet the average patient and healthcare beneficiary seems to pay more and more for mediocre coverage. Where does all the money go that we save with new minimally invasive treatment ideas? We cannot change the world of surgery unless others like the insurance industry pulls on the same roap instead of trying to push on it.
The answer for our denied rights to health care is a simple one. Medicare from birth to death! Medicare has provided very good health care to our seniors until King Bush became involved.
Down with Medicare part D and up with a healthcare system funded, administrated, and watched by "We the People!"
moore better do all he can to improve the healthcare system! is one sick mutha!!!
I happen to work inside the medical industry, and I am SO glad that SiCKO finally surfaced as a feasible argument and protest against the private-sector criminals. We need universal health care NOW.
A great Movie. May be hard to believe, and we better believe it. We better take a stand or there will soon
be nothing to stand for.
As a retired Fed Gov employee I continued my gov. administered health insurance - the same gov. coverage that your U.S. Senators and Congressman have and would deny to you. Irs probably the best medical coverage you can get & has plenty of choices.
OMG. Another reason I'm leaving the liberal camp. You CANNOT review this film, mention 'happy, healthy Europeans and Canadians' without SOME shame. Europeans and Canadians wait YEARS just to get on a WAITING LIST. Are you MAD? Moore is a liar. Yes our health care system is a shambles but please please please do not allow his professed liberalism to give him a pass to deception. The truth is good enough, don't use lies.
Nothing will change.
Until the people are once again represented by those in power, the status quo will go unchallenged.
Campaign finance reform, voting machine reform, media ownership reform, these are the only three issues that can effect change.
Well Michael Moore has money, so its easy for him to sit back and decide what's right for the rest of us, NOT!
Regarding the mandatory Massachusetts "Begins MANDATORY Universal Health Care July 1, 2007", health insurance;What kind of increase in taxes are the LEGAL and TAX PAYING residents of Massachusetts going to face? And how much of what they are forced to pay cover not only those who can't afford insurance, but will also go towards ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS? There is little mention of how the mandatory insurance is also a mandatory tax increase, and or to whom the money will directly benefit? It looks a lot like the oil industry!
HOW will the people use their insurance? Like a PPO or and HMO? and how does the doctor get reimbursed as compared to their current fees (as we all know the current ucr reimbursement in most areas are well below, in certain areas less than 50% of what they the insurance companys previously reimbursed) So how much is the doctor really being paid and will all doctors be forced to accept this mandatory health insurance? If not what kind of doctors will the government be forcing us to select and If all doctors will be required to accept this insurance than at what percent of their practice will suffer?
Why, Should we care? well I prefer a well educated doctor to the cracker box version, but maybe thats just me!
If all doctors are required to accept this plan than regardless of what his or her education level or experience is, How interested are they really going to be to see you? Universal Health care is going to leave the rest of us in dire straits should it go nation wide, How can you MANDATORY increase my taxes which WILL lead me straight into foreclosure, Because that is the real truth behind this mandatory universal plan. How can you tell me what doctors I can see to use my universal health insurance,where I currently pay for my health insurance and can go where I choose even if it is expensive.Perhaps we should accept paying a higher fee for quality health care and consider not having to have a new care or going out to restaurant to eat most of our meals.
I look forward to the new election year ahead for all of us, as I intend to be a stronger participant than ever before.
Norma Sevold
Arvada, CO.
Hoooooray!!! This country, the "Good old US of A", needs more people like Michael Moore.
IFIND IT HARD TO UNDERSTAND THAT PEOPLE OF A LOWER INCOME THAT HAVE NO HEALTH CAREBENEFITS IN THEIR OWN COUNTRYBUT THEIR TAX DEDUCTIONS CAN GO TOA FOREIGN COUNTRY SUCH AS IRAQ TO HELP FUND THEIR HEALTHCARE AND REBUILD THEIR COUNTRY IT MAKES NO SENSE .
Most cult-like Conservative Minions will never watch movie cause their revered political talk show hosts will tell them it is a bad movie.
"This will end up like all the rest of Michael Moores films. He will make a lot of money of it but it won't help change a thing."
And whose fault is that? If our society chooses to ignore the major flaws in the American healthcare industry and fails to act, it's certainly not Moore's fault. It's yours.
"If not what kind of doctors will the government be forcing us to select and If all doctors will be required to accept this insurance than at what percent of their practice will suffer? Why, Should we care? well I prefer a well educated doctor to the cracker box version, but maybe thats just me! If all doctors are required to accept this plan than regardless of what his or her education level or experience is, How interested are they really going to be to see you?"
Typical comment from a fellow American.
How insulting to the entire medical profession. Do you read what you write? You are saying physicians are only in health care for the money. I have met many world class ones, and those are typically the ones who feel the most strongly about universal health care. There has never been any discussion in this thread about which physicians you can see under a one payer system (unlike with our current HMO system). You are part of the problem if you are serious. We can work together for a one payer system. Forget Michael Moore, if he is so offensive to you. Think about your own self interest. Think about your fellow American. Think! Think! Think! We need to do this for ourselves; there are too many people needlessly dying....where did your compassion go?
Michael Moore, as usual, effectively demonstrates that the most effective way to lie to the masses is to tell a small part of the truth and ignore any bits (or the majority) of reality which would undermine his thesis. He finds a handfull of egregious examples of problems in the US system and portrays them as the norm. Most Americans, liberal or conservative are simply too lazy to investigate the facts of an issue, no matter how simple it is now with the internet.
Does our healthcare system now have major problems? yes
Are the single-payer systems of Canada and Western Europe in better shape? not really. All of those nations have a tax system which would give most Americans a coronary to consider; and despite that degree of funding, are driving their respective nations into astronomical degrees of debt, due to their health care systems. Despite a degree of rationing of healthcare that would infuriate any American. Entire provinces of Canada have been known to shut down all non-emergent medical services for the last several months of a fiscal year because they have run out of money to pay for it.
I would encourage all to view another documentary called "Dead Meat" reviewing the Canadian system. the Canadians interviewed in this film will certainly give a different view of the system they have to live with than the Candyland world espoused by Moore. Or read Kurt Loder's editorial of "Sicko" on MTV.com
The governments of all nations with socialized medicine are trying desperately to curtail benefits prior to the baby boomers (a western worldwide phenomenon) hitting the age of peak demand for medical services. France, held up by Moore as the ideal system for subsidizing in home laundry service and unlimited disability pay for minor medical problems just swept Sarkozy into office primarily on a promise to curtail the waste and abuse in their medical system. Norway being a notable exception as they are a tiny population subsidized by huge oil fields in the North Sea.
Use the internet to actually retrieve facts about single-payer systems and how health care is rationed rather than just re-reading each others self congratulatory blogs about the righteousness of your own conservative or liberal agenda. You might find some surprises. You might even start to think instead of bleat.
I'm a liberal myself but I refuse to see any of Michael Moore's films because they all seem super-biased. If we don't want the uptight conservatives laying on their biases than we can't have Moore running around pulling the same stuff.
Thus, our nation is no longer # 1 in any area. We let our own citizens die for no other reason than big business wanting more money. Shame on us!!!!!!!
Michael Moore is a disgrace. He movie is full of lies...he profits by decieving the American public. US has the best healthcare system in the world. Want a change? What are we willing to give up? Americans want it faster, better and cheaper. Not going to happen. Go ahead...move to Canada and wait 6 months for an MRI. In the US...you can have one this afternoon that could save your life.
Bottom Line: DO NOT SUPPORT MOORE!
Michael Moore is a master of one sided propaganda. To call his latest work a documentary is to betray your own profound ignorance.
Have not seen film. But one should understand that you can not separate culture from medicine. United States where employees have little or no rights and is controlled by the "At will law" and where employees in France are impowered. Show that that France rates first in health care where United States among the major nations come in 37 or really last. Shows the problem as impowerment. Where the average U.S. citizen has little freedom and power and lives in a corporate state that really controls things. In order to have a better health care system you need to reform not the health care system but the power that exists of the corporation. Those running for office are simply going to bypass th real problem since the money they get is from the corporations which drive the system. People do not really drive this system unless they are rich with lots of money which is not what the average person is. Don't see any poor person running for president. Only the elite and the one with the most money backing may end up president. So think in terms of culture and health care.
Our health care system in Canada is not perfect. It benefits mostly the poor and the immigrants abusive of the system. Honest Canadians pay up to 35% income tax rate on incomes to finance social programs such as health care. Also, we still get taxed for whatever's left over (14% goods and services tax and 1.5% property tax rate).
The universal system in Canada is being abused by immigrants. They come here to get their health card, go back to wherever they came from and if they need any surgery, come back to Canada.
The point that I try to make is Moore's Sicko is completely biased. Yes, in Canada, health services are free and you will get treatment regardless of your status. However, the bad side is how about waiting for up to 10 hours to get immediate medical attention in the ER? I do not know your system in the States so I cannot really compare.
I was in the ER 6 months ago for chest pains. Unless you're dying, you will be bumped and make to wait by people who needs immediate medical attention such as people who have been shot or anyone bleeding to death. I waited for 10 hours before I could be serviced.
I'm pretty sure Western Europeans have the same problems with their health care systems.
I guess if it helps your government take action on this issue, why not butter things up, right Michael Moore?
However, I'm satisfied with the universal health care system in Canada but it needs to be controlled. I will not bore you of potential solutions that could be done because this problem doesn't affect you, but the main problems come from immigrants new to the country. Canada is known for its tolerance on other cultures but it needs to stand up and stop the abuses that it receives from immigrants.
Good luck with your health care reforms.
Well, I've seen the movie.
Maybe nothing will change for the better as a result of SICKO...
But then again, it MIGHT!
Why I AM QUITTING UNITED HEALTCARE VIA TELETECH.
Posted in Uncategorized by chrisbradley on the July 2nd, 2007
I was invited back to work after re-applying for my third time with teletech since 2001 when they destroyed my career the first time by laying me off indefinitely. Screw me once. I’m stupid, Screw me twice, not a [deleted]ing chance.
So I went to work for them, I took their INSURANCE job which they claimed paid $12.50 an hour. I even got my friend hired there for a supposed $200.00 bonus that I will now never see. They told me after I left the interview that it would be $8.75 to start (via e-mail) and then $12.50 if I passed a State Licensing Exam. So fine. I attended their classes on their campus (if you can call their 4 training rooms a campus). And I went on the allotted time to http://www.prometric.com to pass the STATE INSURANCE LICENSING EXAM for New York.
I PASSED THE EXAM by 2 points. Its not much, but for a week’s training, 2 points is a lot.
In any Case. I am a CERTIFIED NYSTATE INS. Salesperson. That means I am subject to all of the laws and regulations of NY correct?
Well - What we find out in Week 2 is that we will be CANVASSING 40 states within a week. Supposedly this is legal because “NY HAS THE TOUGHEST INSURANCE LAWS.” Whatever, put it in writing and show me my cards? No. Worse yet. I am one of 15 on my team, 5 of whom actually passed the test. Which means 66% of the agents canvassing don’t have licenses for the states we are canvassing by Telephone.
So I canvas for a week - asking about 200 people whether they have Medicare A and B and then whether they have “END STAGE RENAL DISEASE” which is apparently DISQUALIFYING ELDERLY NEEDY PEOPLE from their Insurance plans which are designed for ELDERLY NEEDY PEOPLE.
I MADE GOAL EVERY DAY THAT I WAS ABLE TO - when their Systems worked which they don’t. They use a mix of Crippled Citrix (A microsoft Legacy Tool) for their e-sales database and CRM - and they use ORACLE to keep track of pay so that there are No Printable copies of pay records for their employees.
Their phone records are all kept in South America so apparently the laws are fast and loose there with US GOVERNMENT DATA. And their DATA BASES ARE Highly innacurate.
Agents calling out have been instructed to leave phone numbers with Children for their Medicare Recipient Elders to call back. I’m surprised we weren’t instructed to request information about END STAGE RENAL DISEASE from them…
When in the United States did we become a people with such low aim? We keep setting the bar lower and lower. Will it cost money to set a new global standard
for healthcare and the practice of medicine? Duh.We
americans love to spend the self indulgent dollar
but a buck or two for the "undeserving" forget it.
Politicians and industry need to understand some things are far more important than money. Good health needs to be at the top of everyones list.
An emotional issue within the US causeing people look at think about and take notice of an important and trouble ridden componant of our lives, and to speak via technology that is another important and trouble ridden componant of our lives. Moore's gotten it, not with all the answers but with the ability to hit on emotion in a numb populas that will continue to be dumbed down by govenment and media. It will only be the people that will bring about change,I don't know if we are capable of change in the 21st century of this United States.
Just the facts:
- Europe and Canada have BETTER health care outcomes
- Europe and Canada do NOT have long waiting lines to visit a doctor
- Europe and Canada do not spend 20-30% of TOTAL MEDICAL costs on "overhead"
- And if you are still against a single-payer system, please lobby washington to abolish Medicare.
What we all need is Medicare for all, not just the over-65.
'nuff said
I have not seen the film yet, but I doubt that Mr. Moore even got to the heart of how corrupt the insurance system is. I work in health care and believe that at least half the cost of health care is wasted on insurance infastructor, payroll, for employees to deny claimsand other non health care related items. Dr.now need to hire entire staffs to try and collect fund owed by insurance companies. The insurance industory denies claims and keeps deneying them as many times as they can in order to delay payment. Last year the Blues in our area assigned out of network Drs. pin numbers but did not let them know they had a number thereby denying claims on all out of network Drs. for many months. They also asked for money back from Drs. who gave care, got the patients well, and dscharged them by calling for retro-active audits. These audits found no fraud but said they didn't like the Dr.'s notes and asked for 7 years back payment on a presentage of the practice. All of this and we pay hugh amounts for insurance coverage.
I am living in Prague, having coped for years with the U.S. health insurance system. Wow! For about $50 a month and a few tiny copayments ($1 at most) on some prescriptions, I get excellent care. Also got free emergency care in Germany last year on the same health card. Unfortunately, the American neo-con "advisors" are pushing the privatization of hospitals, insurance, and doctors' clinics. WHY don't the Czechs look to Canada, France, or Sweden instead of the U.S.? Promises of big bucks?? Don't understand it.
I see better healthcare options due to Moore's film. Affirm the best!
I saw the movie, unlike a lot of the critics of Michael Moore. I think Mr. Moore is right about everything. We need universal health care now, like in Canada and the UK and France, etc. There is simply no reason not to have a system that takes care of us--those who supposedly govern ourselves, but instead of demanding a better system we have given up our power to have the same health care as our legislators.
Whatever the movie portrays it has the right message in health care reform. Most middle aged, middle income people in this country will not be able to afford health care in retirement. Most corporations (to boost profits) have eliminated retirement health car as well as pensions. What this leaves the average Joe who has worked for 30 to 40 years is little chance to enjoy any sort of retirement. It is a shame that we allow our corporations to run the country. At some point corporate and corporate executive greed will have to be replaced by a sense of nationalism and morality in order to solve problems such as this. The movie only gets us to think and hopefully act on our beliefs. I am an independent (leaning towards the libertarian beliefs), but I commend anybody who is brave enough to buck the system. We need a lot of things fixed in this country and I put Health Care, Immigration and Government Fleecing at the top.
the film will help to create interest in the universal health care, but we really need to inform all the people about how the change might take place. example: first, supporting a presidential candidate that will institute the change. Second, voting in a house and senate that would be able to push foward the bill created without trimming the key issues that are needed for universal health care. third, making sure that the information doesn't get washed out by special interest groups trying to mislead the people through tv commercials/ads. Most people may not understand enough to be truly informed. if the average person even with insurance knew how misleading the hmo's are we really might have change.
What absolute swill! This guy is a self serving shyster.
As an Economics major, I am often amazed that people have such faith in capitalism as a social lever. It was never intended to be an equitable social arrangement and to think it is the political answer to very real problems in a relative affluent (tilted toward the top as capitalism would have it) society. This is about the same logic that FOJ (Friends of Jesus, the man who spent his career helping the poor) get into when they think that conservative politics and Jesus play together.
If USA can sink 300 billion dollars
into Iraq, it can certainly provide free
universal coverage for all its citizens.
I don't know anything about the health care system. All I know is when I was a little I couldn't go to the doctor because we didn't have insurance, and now that we do we still can't afford to go to the doctor. So why does my Mom pay a bunch out of her paycheck for insurance but I haven't been to the doc since I was 10?
I want to move to Canada......
Of course this film is controversial and agrandizing ... people wouldn't watch it if it wasn't!
The real problems is that what's wrong with this country began around Reagan or so, when we saw the largest single upwards movement of $$$$$ in the history of America ... and that trend is still continuing. We are becoming a country of the Haves and Have-Nots, and the Haves are doing this on purpose.
Mergers and buyouts only profit a few elite people ... the rest of us pay, literally, either with our jobs, or with our workloads doubled (or more)! Cars that run on anything but gas ... those patents are bought up by big oil and/or the auto makers. Gas prices going through the roof. Areas post-Katrina that still look like they've been bombed out. Iraq, a president who lies about anything and everything.
This country is being SOLD out by ugly Americans interested *only* in profiteering from America's suffering.
If we really want to change that, we have got to each do whatever we can to end the tyranny of the rich in this country.
We take care of the rich money-grubbers stealing from America and the rest will fall into place very quickly.
HealthCARE needs to become just that - NOT a money-making enterprise, but one that FIRST, DOES NO HARM.
It's all about the money big corporations make and nothing else.They don't give a rat's ass about the american people.Free universal health care in america???...we're kidding ourselves.
I have a suggestion. Why not have Hillary Clinton and Obama use some of their campaign contribution money to help this cause? The health industry is such a SCAM.
I would think that even doctors would want a single payer system. My doctor used to close her practice at noon on Fridays. Now she closes it the whole day. When I asked her about her change in hours, she said it takes her a whole day just to do the paperwork for the insurance companies.
As a physician who was involved with a physician - private corporation ownership of a private hospital I watched the rates rise astronomically in 5 years and continued to skyrocket as an off the top percentage went to corporate offices and then an additional percentage designated for 'profit'. The same situation exists with the participation of private insurers - the government had to pay them an additional more than 10% to cover their 'overhead' above what is expended in the government run medicare system. Many private insurers run at about 15% overhead compared with 3% for medicare. That is an unconsionable amount of money that is siphoned away from actual dollars spent on direct care for the sick. Over the past 4 decades - along with a growing number of physicians - I have come to believe as apparently does Mr. Moore that like the police and fire services, profit has no place in the health care system.
I see comments about how other countries with single payor coverage RATION CARE. So does Oregon - and so do all insurers. The fact is that there is not enough money in the GDP to pay for everything that can be treated. We in the USA have promulgated the fantasy that we who are insured are fully covered. The reviews for 'MEDICAL NECESSITY' are the hidden rationing devices in our system - and the obvious rationing by which only a portion of our population are covered - they are 'rationed' out of the system. In order to have a coherent approach to health care as a nation we must accept the reality of limits to what we can afford. At least we could do this honestly and directly as in those systems criticized for this approach. If this reality of limits is not confronted directly there is no possibility of finding a solution to this national shame.
Universal health care will lead to universal lousy care.
There is a reason the richest people from these countires come to America for major surgery, because when it is free, it is crap.
Go to New Zeland and see how they stich you after a major cut, horrible scaring, but hell, its free horrible scaring.
If the purpose of the film is to effect health care reform, that's one thing. But I have news for you: there is no such thing as the tooth fairy or santa claus. One of the few ways to worsen health care is to have it government funded or subsidised. The HMOs were to improve care and reduce costs. They have had the opposite effect. How about instead of insuring things like perscriptions and doctor visits, you insure against catastrophe as someone else said? Insurance is supposed to make financial sense-- you do it to cover costs you can't afford to incur. If the costs of drugs and doctor visits REALLY need to be covered by insurance, then they are WAY too high.
HMO and Managed Care oriented healthcare delivery is the ultimate curse of American Medicine and if the public outcry reaches the halls of the Congress and White House in a clear and loud message, all the lobbies and corporate donations must not be made to stand in the way of the wills of we the people !
