SiCKO

Last night I watched the movie/documentary Sicko. It is by Micheal Moore, a controversial man, who has done many documentaries on political issues such as 9/11. This one is about health care in the United States, and how it sucks. I, luckily, am insured so I didn't even realize how big of problem it can be for some people. I've heard that care is expensive but some of the stats on the surgeries astounded me. The one that sticks out in my mind is the man who cut off two of his fingers with a saw. He was uninsured, and when he got to the hospital and they told him one finger would cost $60000 and the other would be $15000! That is ridiculous! They were only the section above the last knuckle. It is like you have to give him a bunch of prosthetics, the only thing you have to do is sew it back on, and do some resetting of the bones and blood vessels. Now I realized doctors went to school for a long time but seriously, how is that fair?

That guy didn't have insurance, so you know everyday your kind of risking it. But what is more surprising, and actually completely wrong is the people who are insured but the insurance companies deny their claims. People have died because these companies want to make money, not actually do what they said they would do, pay for your medical expenses. So, as in the movie some people have cancer and can get surgery and treatment for it, they are lucky, they caught it soon enough, not. They are all ready to rid themselves of cancer when they get a letter from their insurer saying it is not approved. Some of the excuses were, it's too experimental (even though thousands have had it and cured by it), you lied on you application (we didn't care then because you were going to pay us money, but now that we have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars we've decided to screw you over), or hire investigators to find something, anything to deny you. Now he isn't just pulling this out of no where, a while ago a woman form one of the HMOs went to congress and exposed this problem, telling them how she was told that the more people she denied, the larger bonuses and promotions you would get, after being promoted as high as she could she decided it was enough.

Another part of the movie was Moore visiting Canada, Britain, and France who all have socialized/free health care. Many Americans, just as myself have fallen victim to the belief that with free health care the quality suffers. Although this isn't the case, from what I saw. Moore talked to doctors and Americans living in each of these countries. It isn't worse health care, and arguably it's better. You don't have to worry about getting approved, only getting well. Doctors are not going to get stiffed, a doctor in Britain makes more than a doctor here, and interestingly they receive bonuses for making their patients healthier; by having them loose weight, quit smoking, and other such things.

I do have to admit, I'm pretty sure Moore exaggerated a little to get his point across. He didn't talk at all about the fact that there are many people who insured well. Also he showed the worse case scenario, to make it seem much more tragic. Despite this though I did like it, and it opened my eyes a little to how well I have it, as well as why Obama and Clinton want universal health care, doesn't seem so stupid to me now.