Anyone Going To See "Sicko"?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(05_SilverPri @ Jul 11 2007, 04:22 PM) [snapback]477071[/snapback]</div>

Well We need to build a massive wall with a minefiled behind it and then another wall behaind that... and put about 30,000-40,000 border agents behind the second wall... we need that border secured at all costs... then deport all the illegals... NO exemptions for "anchor children" or any other BS excuses... illegal means ILLEGAL... THEN create a single-payer national healthcare system... with the tax based on income... The more you make the more you pay... its that simple...

FYI I consider myself a moderate democrat... few is any democrats I have talked to want the illegals ut on a path to legalization.. I really wish the Dems in congress would figure that out and side with the republicans on an enforcement-only plan... that is the ONLY issue I agree with the Republicans on...

 

I just noticed something in the preview I missed before I saw the film.

Remember that list showing how the U.S. is 37th in Health Care quality? Well, look at the list again... and note the country two spaces WORSE than the U.S.

 

Aren't the illegal immigrants interested in health care already coming over?

Perhaps we should try enforcing the laws against businesses using illegal labor before trying something new. If they can't pay for food and housing, they really aren't going to be able to stick around for the health care.

 

well... we finally watched sicko. yeah, we're just a little behind the times

i'm not a movie cry-er, i'm gonna put that out there right away. but i was near tears a number of times in this movie. out of sympathy. out of amazement of what those people are going through. because we thought WE had it bad. i got too depressed to keep track once we hit 5 figures in medical bills WITH insurance. we still feel pinned down by it and when i think about it, it's hard to breathe sometimes.

we've been fortunate in the recent past to run across some very good doctors who WANT to help. and we haven't had any problems with the insurance company itself, just the joke coverage levels that were offered to us through our respective employers.

my own outrage against the situation we're in is bad enough, but i'm so angry for these people. to have resistant doctors and combative insurance companies on top of all that, it's enough to break a person. they give up all they have worked for, and die fighting.

that's so depressing.

 

Don't feel bad galaxee, I had the same reactions and I already knew the statistics. I uploaded a great pod cast to my website that details our view of time and money and how it can affect our health if you are interested in listening. It's titled: Time is Not Money: Waking from the Workaholic American Dream


Here are the studies some of those numbers came from:

The Work, Family, and Equity Index - How does the U.S. measure up?

The full 2004 pdf.

Here are some other intersting bits while I look for the main paper:

Global Gender Gap Index (source: World Economic Forum)
Rank 2007 / Country / Score*


1 Sweden 0.814
2 Norway 0.805
3 Finland 0.804
4 Iceland 0.783
5 N. Zealand 0.764
6 Philippines 0.762
7 Germany 0.761
8 Denmark 0.751
9 Ireland 0.745
10 Spain 0.744

*0 to 1 scale: 0=inequality, 1=equality

...............................................................

Ranking of the Woelds Health Systems (Source: WTO) WTO specific site

Rank Country

1 France
2 Italy
3 San Marino
4 Andorra
5 Malta
6 Singapore
7 Spain
8 Oman
9 Austria
10 Japan
11 Norway
12 Portugal
13 Monaco
14 Greece
15 Iceland
16 Luxembourg
17 Netherlands
18 United Kingdom
19 Ireland
20 Switzerland
21 Belgium
22 Colombia
23 Sweden
24 Cyprus
25 Germany
26 Saudi Arabia
27 United Arab Emirates
28 Israel
29 Morocco
30 Canada
31 Finland
32 Australia
33 Chile
34 Denmark
35 Dominica
36 Costa Rica
37 United States of America
38 Slovenia
39 Cuba
40 Brunei
41 New Zealand
42 Bahrain
43 Croatia
44 Qatar
45 Kuwait
46 Barbados
47 Thailand
48 Czech Republic
49 Malaysia
50 Poland
51 Dominican Republic
52 Tunisia
53 Jamaica
54 Venezuela
55 Albania
56 Seychelles
57 Paraguay
58 South Korea
59 Senegal
60 Philippines
61 Mexico
62 Slovakia
63 Egypt
64 Kazakhstan
65 Uruguay
66 Hungary
67 Trinidad and Tobago
68 Saint Lucia
69 Belize
70 Turkey
71 Nicaragua
72 Belarus
73 Lithuania
74 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
75 Argentina
76 Sri Lanka
77 Estonia
78 Guatemala
79 Ukraine
80 Solomon Islands
81 Algeria
82 Palau
83 Jordan
84 Mauritius
85 Grenada
86 Antigua and Barbuda
87 Libya
88 Bangladesh
89 Macedonia
90 Bosnia-Herzegovina
91 Lebanon
92 Indonesia
93 Iran
94 Bahamas
95 Panama
96 Fiji
97 Benin
98 Nauru
99 Romania
100 Saint Kitts and Nevis
101 Moldova
102 Bulgaria
103 Iraq
104 Armenia
105 Latvia
106 Yugoslavia
107 Cook Islands
108 Syria
109 Azerbaijan
110 Suriname
111 Ecuador
112 India
113 Cape Verde
114 Georgia
115 El Salvador
116 Tonga
117 Uzbekistan
118 Comoros
119 Samoa
120 Yemen
121 Niue
122 Pakistan
123 Micronesia
124 Bhutan
125 Brazil
126 Bolivia
127 Vanuatu
128 Guyana
129 Peru
130 Russia
131 Honduras
132 Burkina Faso
133 Sao Tome and Principe
134 Sudan
135 Ghana
136 Tuvalu
137 Ivory Coast
138 Haiti
139 Gabon
140 Kenya
141 Marshall Islands
142 Kiribati
143 Burundi
144 China
145 Mongolia
146 Gambia
147 Maldives
148 Papua New Guinea
149 Uganda
150 Nepal
151 Kyrgystan
152 Togo
153 Turkmenistan
154 Tajikistan
155 Zimbabwe
156 Tanzania
157 Djibouti
158 Eritrea
159 Madagascar
160 Vietnam
161 Guinea
162 Mauritania
163 Mali
164 Cameroon
165 Laos
166 Congo
167 North Korea
168 Namibia
169 Botswana
170 Niger
171 Equatorial Guinea
172 Rwanda
173 Afghanistan
174 Cambodia
175 South Africa
176 Guinea-Bissau
177 Swaziland
178 Chad
179 Somalia
180 Ethiopia
181 Angola
182 Zambia
183 Lesotho
184 Mozambique
185 Malawi
186 Liberia
187 Nigeria
188 Democratic Republic of the Congo
189 Central African Republic
190 Myanmar


World Health Statistics 2006 (80pg. pdf.)

 

I saw a piece on 60 minutes that there are some americans who don't have insurance that went to India/thailand for surgery.

Do americans ever go to France for medical care, since they're #1 and all? Do French elite ever come to america for medical care? If so, why would they since we're #37?

 

Lookie there, the US outranks...Slovenia!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(burritos @ Nov 26 2007, 11:52 AM) [snapback]544270[/snapback]</div>

A while back I read a blog entry by a manic lawyer where he talks about his experience under the US and French healthcare systems(I haven't had much luck finding the actual entry). He had treatable mental problems, but his mother's coverage wouldn't cover the required treatments. It covered something along the lines of 5 therapy sessions a year.
He goes overseas for grad school. As a student, he got into the French system for a one time fee of about $200, and got all the care he needed.
Some may not think mental health care is important, but this guy, while untreated, took drives down the highway with eyes closed. Being healthy isn't an individual concern.

 

Sicko is on my netflix and its been at the top of the list for a few weeks now... it still is a "long wait" but i do anticipate getting it within a week or so. there was never any question that i would watch the movie. having several members of family and friends in the medical field including my SO who is a medical biller, i do have some insight as to problems in the medical field.

two years ago, my SO had gall bladder surgery without health insurance, that cost us eventually about $15,000... but the bad thing is that if we had insurance, it would have cost us about $1,000 and the insurance company would have paid about $2,500 so the medical professions get screwed if you have insurance.

also stories about the interaction between medical care providers and insurance companies can not be believed. my SO constantly stresses over her job because the insurance companies do actively do what they can to not pay out benefits. any small mistake on her claims can at best case delay desperately needed treatment (she works for oncology office, and mostly files qualifying claims for cancer treatments) or can disqualify a patient altogether.

 

Sicko

I'm glad I had Kleenex when I saw it. And yes we are way behind the times. All my European friends call the US "a backwards country" and they are right. I wish I could live in France. It's so easy for people with good insurance to put down Michael Moore for making the best film he ever made. These are people that can't express and empathy for anything, even children in this country that have died due to lack of health care. You may prosper today but that could change in minutes. What would you do then? And medicare is a joke. If a low income person has medicare they could starve trying to pay all the premiums they get stuck with. Medical care is not a privledge, it's a right that every American should have. Hopefully our next President will be someone who is for the people, not for himself and his corrupt friends. Hopefully our country, now practically owned by China, will prosper again. If we don't get rid of the neocons, who are already planning how to steal the 2008 elections, then we are done and finished. Our country, as we used to know it, is just about on it's last legs .

BUSH SUCKS!!!!!!!

 

We saw the DVD a few weeks ago, just after BlockBuster released it. I was appauled at how "lame" the U.S. really is and how "advanced" other countries are when it comes to Health Care. Made me more than mad.....

 

Medical Insurance is in no way guaranteed by the Bill of Rights or the Constitution.

Why people believe that their government is obligated to provide them with health insurance is beyond me. I assume it is the "nanny-state" mentality.

I for one do not want my health care in the hands of our government. Have you seen how poorly our own government takes care of it's military veterans via the VA? If they can't even provide adequate coverage for the honorable men and women that have served our country, how on Earth do you think they'll be able to cover every single person living in America, citizen or not?

What we need is health insurance reform. The insurance companies are at fault. Not George W. Bush. Not Bill Clinton. Not Liberals and not Conservatives.
Of course, the Doctors aren't exactly innocent either. I've seen trumped up medical bills created by the Doctors and their staff - while the patient just signs away with the mentality "I'm not paying for it, insurance is..".

Socialized medicine isn't all that it is chalked up to be. Especially considering how Billary Clinton wants to enable this "Free" healthcare for all people in America, regardless of citizenship.

Our emergency rooms are already full of illegal immigrants trying to get basic care for their coughs and scratches. When I went to the E.R. last year for an apendectomy, I had to wait in line behind at least a dozen illegal immigrants, whom were there for colds, coughs, and light abrasions. I was appauled at how they are abusing our already descent system. Implementing a free-for-all healthcare system is only going to encourage more illegal immigration.

On another note, I wouldn't mind having a sort of "Socialized" healthcare plan as long as people were given the option to "opt-out" and use their own privatized health insurance. It would be good..

In the end, I really feel it is the insurance companies that need a good slap to the wrist.. not the tax payers of our country.

 

Neither are the services of a fire department.

 

Apparently you haven't seen Michael Moore lately. He's lost a ton of weight and he looks great. Still a teddy bear though.

He may be a liberal, but wacko he's not.

 

We are a broken and divided nation with wimps that won't stand up and fight to take our country back. At least 40% of the people still believe Bush is right. The neocons are out there now, planning on how to steal the next election. And if they pull it off, this country will never survive. So, they better get their fat butts off their couches and be prepared to hit the streets and bring the Bushies and others down to their knees. I'm not religious, but from what I've read about the anti christ, I'd say Bush is 50% anti christ and 50% Hitler. People ignored Hitler and look what happened. When history repeats itself, do they notice or care?

 

You give Bush too much credit. It is my opinion that Bush only surrounds himself with evil people, and Bush does their bidding. Anyone around him that begins to show the slightest bit of reasonable thought is forced out by his minions.

I don't exactly get desynch's comments. He is against government provided heatlcare, but then says it's ok...as long as he can opt out. I am sure if you ask one of the 47 million uninsured Americans they would love desynch's plan.

 

I don't think that desynch understands that goverment can be a provider as in the VA system or can be a payer, as in the Medicare system. Medicare does very well, VA does not. Medicare is a single payer system and IMO, that is what the US needs. Just put everyone on Medicare and raise taxes to pay for it.

The big problem with healthcare in this country, IMO, is that people with health insurance, usually given by their employer, beat up on the people who don't have employer given insurance available to them. Employer given health insurance has a tax break (you get the ins. but don't pay taxes on that benefit) included with it that people who pay for their own policys don't get. And that's very unfair. Patients who have employer given health insurance pay a lower rate for medical services because their insurance negotiates that lower rate and it is based on the rate charged to those who don't have health insurance (and are least likely to afford to pay the normal rate). And that's very unfair. And, for an individual to get health insurance, he or she has to be the perfect picture of health. But to get health insurance from an employer all you have to do is get hired. And that's very unfair.

I'd like to see the US go with a single payer system but it will never happen because the health insurance industry would fight it tooth and nail. I'd also like to see medicare offered to anyone that would pay for it. I'm sure that quite a few who are denied insurance by the health insurance industry would snap it up.

~buttster

 

Absolutely. If people want Socialized Medicine, they should get it.. as long as they don't drag me into it. As far as I'm concerned, if all the poor/jobless/unemployed people want to all chip in for their own subpar healthcare system, more power to them. Personally, I don't want my taxes paying for people that cannot afford their own healthcare more than it already is. That would make it even better for me.. so the next time I end up in the emergency room, I'm not waiting in line behind a bunch of illegal immigrants that are there for a chest cold. You all can have your own socialized hospitals and I'll go to the privatized one. I'd prefer to go to the one where the best of the best work. The highest paid doctors and nurses.. they WONT be at the socialized hospitals, I promise.

as far as comparing Bush to Hitler.. I think that is so lame. Disrespectful, knee-jerk, and lame.

 

The government is us. Where do you think they get that money from? Congress doesn't pay.. you're represenatives don't "pay". We the people, pay.

I do not want to pay for every unemployed/illegal immigrant/homeless bum.. Like I said though, you are more than welcome to.

 

must be nice to be you. what happens to you if you get hurt and can't continue in the career you trained for? when you can't work a comparable job but don't qualify for disability? better hope you can marry someone with insurance or you're screwed.