Anyone watched the film 'Sicko'? (page 4)

sammielee24

I've used both systems Katie - stick with the one you got! Imagine if instead of paying your taxes, you were forced to not only pay taxes but pay for health insurance that cost you $1,000.00 a month to cover your whole family. That's the average cost. Then imagine if your baby had a heart defect and she needed heart surgery while she was only a month old. You used your insurance but shortly after that when you went to renew it, they told you to forget it. Too much risk.

So now your baby needs another operation in order to live. You don't have any health insurance. The bill will probably cost your about $120,000 lets say. You call all the insurance companies and find one that will cover your baby but it still costs you $1,000 a month and only pays for 40%. So now you are paying $12,000 a year, the baby can have the operation and you have a medical bill of $65,000 left to pay off. If she gets sick for any reason or anyone in the family gets ill - start piling up the charges. Then try to find a way to pay it.

Thats the story in the USA. That's why there are almost 100 million - 100,000,000 people out of 300 million that are uninsured and underinsured, which means that they are one paycheck from living on the streets if they get sick. That's why 3,000 people die every year - that's equal to a yearly 9/11 terrorist attack - no insurance so they don't go for care. The insurance companies take 40 cents of every dollar that people hand over to them for coverage and when people try to tell you they have great freedom in choice - they aren't telling you the truth. Most of us are told what doctors we can use and what hospitals we are allowed to go to. If you go to another doctor or another hospital, they can disallow your bill and you can end up paying for it yourself. There is no freedom, nor is there any security in the health care system in the USA. It's all about the money. If you have none too bad. It's very much a class issue with the poor, elderly and children getting hit the hardest. The middle class is just now falling apart and getting hit harder as employers stop paying the benefits and jobs are lost.

What do I care if my taxes go toward paying for a woman having a baby? Why would I care if my taxes go toward a little kid getting a check up? Why do I care if my tax dollars are spent on the cancer victim that needs chemo or the old woman who is recuperating from a stroke? Their lives are no less valuable and if paying for someone now, means the system is there when I need it - then that's the way I'd always go. sammieswife.

5go

Then imagine if your baby had a heart defect and she needed heart surgery while she was only a month old. You used your insurance but shortly after that when you went to renew it, they told you to forget it. Too much risk.
So now your baby needs another operation in order to live. You don't have any health insurance. The bill will probably cost your about $120,000 lets say. You call all the insurance companies and find one that will cover your baby but it still costs you $1,000 a month and only pays for 40%. So now you are paying $12,000 a year, the baby can have the operation and you have a medical bill of $65,000 left to pay off. If she gets sick for any reason or anyone in the family gets ill - start piling up the charges. Then try to find a way to pay it.

My early life in a nut shell my sister died from it too.

katiekitten

Communalism is the real source of the majority of social ills which its proponents want to blame on free market capitalism.

Well, I am sure no system is brilliant, and every system will have inherent greed and exploitation because every system is run by human beings, who do tend to be greedy and exploit as soon as they have the chance to.

However, as regards health care, I honestly think that everyone paying towards a system that will guarantee to benefit everyone is better than a system where each person pays for a personal system that does not even guarantee to benefit the person who is paying for it, and withdraws cover as soon as the individual has a condition that requires long term financing.

I think your ideas, Liberty, only seem to work while you are in the priviledged group of people who are fit, healthy and of working age. Maybe your ideas might change if something unexpected happened to you that meant you needed lots of treatment that your insurance refused to cover.

And what about when you get old and need to retire and maybe have more serious medical conditions that need attending to? In your world of the free individual who looks after children, the old, the ill, the disabled?

llbh

I have not seen film yet but am planning to.

KK I agree I think our nhs is good. It needs some fixing but it is i think a better place to start from

regards llbh

ps Hope all goes well with baby

moshe

Michael Moore decides what he wants his movie to say and then just like the Knocking movie producers, he conveniently ignores anything that contradicts his movie script.

katiekitten

Im sure Michael Moore is not completely objective in his film making, but there are still points that he makes that are irrefutable. Like the 5c inhalers costing $120 in the US.

You have to be able to pick through the hyperbole, but on balance I cant see that insurance companies telling you to pre-authorise the use of an ambulance when you are actually unconscious is better than what happens in countries with a 'free' healthcare service (I know, I know, its paid for by taxes).

I personally know of one lady in the US who works with my dad who has had to sell her house to pay for cancer treatment because her insurance wouldnt cover it. I think that is very very sad, when someone has worked all their life and paid insurance preminums all their working life and still they are not covered at a time when they are unable to work due to illness - isnt that what insurance is for?

dinah

When we had to take our son to a rheumatologist the bill was $3,000.00 for an office visit. Our insurance paid it, but why in the world would 10 minutes talking to a doctor and one cortisone/steriod shot cost $3,000.00

Our health insurance goes up every year, usually about 1% more than his so-called pay raise. This year they weren't given a raise, but the insurance still went higher. You can't afford to not have insurance. If you get sick you will die!

Now if my husband's job closes down and moves to Mexico (like 8 others plants owned by the company), we have a child with a pre-existing condition.

watson

This film was a real eye opener for me. One point that struck me was about happy and productive workers. He raised the question of "how many people stay in a line of work or job that they really hate or dislike because they fear losing their health care?" This is really a big deal. I think that is the case for so many in the US. A subtle point compared to others made in the movie, but interesting premise.

emy the infidel

No I didn't see it. Did it explain why Cubans wash up on South Florida shores almost every day of the week?

Liberty

I agree 100% that health care in the U.S. costs too much. The argument is over why. It is clear to me that government meddling is responsible for over priced medical goods and services. If McDonalds could get away with charging $100.00 for a hamburger they would but they compete in a less regulated field and so cannot get away with it.

Veterinary medicine is nearly as complex and the training as intensive yet the prices are far more reasonable because pet owners shop around for services and then pay directly for the care and this keeps prices down. Insurance is the same, car and home owners insurance is more reasonable than health insurance because your employer does not buy it for you and when it pays a claim it pays it to you once you have assymbled a set of reasonable estimates from competing independant venders. If you do the repair work yourself or elect not to repair less than vital damage you are even allowed to keep the money you did not spend.

Luxery hotels cost far less per night than a simple hospital room so it is clear that the prices are grossly inflated. Doctors are forced to pay outrageous prices for malpractice insurance because our corrupted court systems pay out ridiculous sums in settlements and at the same time the medical community conspires to hide the records of dangerous Dr.s from the customer. If you were allowed to shop around and compare the success histories of medical practitioners and if they openly competed the malpractice would go down, bad Dr.s would be driven out of business, and prices would come down.

In short, compare the prices of other less regulated high end services and it becomes very clear that the medical industry is full of waste, overcharging, ridiculous wages, unneeded costs, faked billing records, and general graft which they only get away with because it is easy to hide among the miles of regulatory red tape from their friends in Congress.

When my father was a boy his family was very poor and yet they had a Doctor who made housecalls and treated them in return for my Grandmother providing him a hot lunch once a week, sometime laundry service, or their home raised fresh plucked chickens (depending on his needs). This arrangement was satisfactory to both parties since my Grandmother had to do laundry, pluck chickens, and cook hot lunches anyway and this widowed Doctor needed her services to make his life better. A fair trade accepted by both parties without the government getting in the way.

Anyone watched the film 'Sicko'?

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