Sunday, July 08, 2007
New Movie Review: Sicko
The last Michael Moore movie was just ok, alittle over the top but generally kind of funny. His new movie, Sicko, is about the health care industry. I have to admit I had low expectations going in, but it was fantastic. As usual, he's a little loose with the facts, and it's pretty one-sided. However, his main push that everyone should have health care in the U.S. seems pretty reasonable. A couple points that I thought were worth repeating if you are interested. The first is that we are the only first-world top industrialized country that doesn't provide it's citizens with free health care. The second thing that was a good point is that we have already socialized some of the other important things, mainly our fire departments, police departments, and education through high school. Here's how it works, even if you don't have a child that is going to go to school, or who's house never ends up burning down, you still have to pay taxes that go for these services. Like most people, I don't have a problem doing that. See, I kind of feel like a somewhat reasonable person - - I'll easily forgo a little extra personal spending so that everyone, not just me and my family, can have health care. Somewhere along the way we as a society have forgotten that our neighbors and neighborhood are also important too....not just us. This is where I always appreciated how my Dad would try to help others, even if there was nothing in it for him. So why don't we demand health care for everyone? How frustrating is it that you can get better health care in Cuba than in the United States. The problem is that everyone thinks they are covered by their HMO but those that actually have to use it for life threatening diseases end up getting the run around. I do know one thing, this coming election I will be looking at all of the candidates and will weight their answer to health care higher than the rest. And I will make this promise, the first one that says there is not a problem or that it requires only minor adjustments to the current system or that not everyone deserves health care is not going to get my vote. Because I do my best to make sure my actions reflect the things I really care about. So here's my idea - - a compromise for the Republicans and Democrats - - universal health care for everyone (Democrats will love that) and HMOs can then try to convince people that they provide better health care than the government and people can pay extra for those companies (Republicans would love this). There - it's a little more complicated than that of course but that's the general idea.
The end of the movie was awesome. Michael Moore finds out that an Anti-Michael Moore website has said it will have to shut down because the guy's wife is really sick and he can't pay for the medical bills unless he gets a different job to pay for them. Michael Moore actually sent in an anonomous payment of $12,000 to the man so that his wife could get the treatment she needed and he could keep writing is anti-Michael Moore retoric. He said health care shouldn't stop people from exercising their freedom of speech, even if it was negatively directed at him. Yes, he did it to make a point I'm sure - - but I still thought it was pretty cool that he could put aside his differences and help someone else. It was a nice touch.
So enough ranting about how we are so selfish that we can't even take care of old and sick people - - go see the movie and see what you think. Hopefully it will at least raise awareness about the issue. And go do something about it - - at minimum vote for the people that share your beliefs.
One last thing - I'd be interested to hear if anyone else saw the movie and if they liked it or not. Feel free to disagree, any comments welcome. If you have and want to post your comments below, I'll send the first person who does it a free bead (a focal and a couple accent beads). All you have to do is make some reference to the movie so that I know you actually saw it.
Have a great Monday everyone!
The end of the movie was awesome. Michael Moore finds out that an Anti-Michael Moore website has said it will have to shut down because the guy's wife is really sick and he can't pay for the medical bills unless he gets a different job to pay for them. Michael Moore actually sent in an anonomous payment of $12,000 to the man so that his wife could get the treatment she needed and he could keep writing is anti-Michael Moore retoric. He said health care shouldn't stop people from exercising their freedom of speech, even if it was negatively directed at him. Yes, he did it to make a point I'm sure - - but I still thought it was pretty cool that he could put aside his differences and help someone else. It was a nice touch.
So enough ranting about how we are so selfish that we can't even take care of old and sick people - - go see the movie and see what you think. Hopefully it will at least raise awareness about the issue. And go do something about it - - at minimum vote for the people that share your beliefs.
One last thing - I'd be interested to hear if anyone else saw the movie and if they liked it or not. Feel free to disagree, any comments welcome. If you have and want to post your comments below, I'll send the first person who does it a free bead (a focal and a couple accent beads). All you have to do is make some reference to the movie so that I know you actually saw it.
Have a great Monday everyone!
| Farmer Dave, 7:41 PM|
I have really good insurance coverage. Very expensive for my husband's employer and for us, but very good. I broke an ankle 2 years ago and had to have another round of surgery on it a few months later. I never paid for a thing. Well, that's not true. I did have to cough up a couple of $10 office visit co-pays. Otherwise, I never even saw a bill. And I got excellent care. So do I have any health care gripes? You bet I do!
In the last few years I've lost health care providers -- all of them -- over and over again. They've either moved elsewhere or have simply gotten out of the game altogether, going to work elsewhere. Why? Because reimbursement rates are very low here in spite of the fact that the cost of living is very high here. Why is that? Because insurance payments to providers are keyed to Medicare reimbursement and the folks in Washington insist on branding our county "rural" as if we were an outpost in Kansas. Sure, I can get excellent coverage, provided I can find someone to deliver the services to me.
If you take the money that employers and employees pay for insurance and then add what the Feds put out for Medicare and so on, we could easily pay for universal health care for most people and most medical services. It's as simple as that.
I liked Sicko a lot for showing viewers what universal health care looks like from the consumers' viewpoint in Canada, England, France and Cuba. I hope it will wake up a lot of people who see the movie and I hope that everyone sees the movie. Sometimes it is hard to know whether to laugh or cry. Yeah, I liked it.