Watched this bad boy quite a few times already. I’m a big michael moore fan just because I find the way he presents things hilarious. For example, he asks the doctor what he is driving: "you’re driving a car, yeah, probably just an old beater right? then BAM a picture of a nice Audi.
he’s quite the smart-ass.
I’ve heard he’s really grasping at straws in this new one, though…lots of false information.
His early stuff was good, too.
Roger and Me, especially.
I can only make it about 3/5s through his movies…
Then I get bored and figure I could be doing anything better with my time.
Is this his push for socialized medicine? Lemme guess, the premise of his movie is that rich doctors should make time for poor patients? I guess I really don’t find the idea of a doctor driving an Audi too abhorible, but that’s just me…
I’m a fan of his movies, but I really have trouble with this premise…
Actually, I saw this movie on the bigscreen. Pleasantville was one of the select locations it came out, believe it or not. And Ir eally like this one. I didn’t even really wanna see it, I wanted to see the movie about French singer Edith Piaf, but my friend snagged tix to the members only screening of SiCKO. Its brilliant because he just shuts the fuck up and lets his subjects convey the stories. He makes some awesome points.
I love when they end up in Guantanamo Bay because the Detanees there get better health care than some of us! Healthcare has been something thats really been on my mind lately since I don’t have it anymore since I graduated college. But i think i might be getting some soon…after I sell out and get a job at Starbucks, but whatever. yay healthcare!
I was almost in a situation similar to what Moore describes in Sicko:
I have Chron’s Disease and last spring was prescribed a new medicine. The medicine was a shot that I take twice a month. Each shot costs $750. That comes out to $18,000 per year and at first my health insurance refused to cover it. Every other medicine I had used prior to this one had not worked in the long term, this one has. The insurance company never approved it actually, what happened was Pfizer (my dad works for Pfizer so we get our health insurance through them) changed their health plan after my dad wrote several letters.
I know what Moore is talking about. After I graduate from college my dad’s health insurance will no longer cover me, so I’m probably moving to Canada.
ps: phg, as far as I know the only errors in Sicko are omissions (and those are few), all the facts he presents are accurate
I could point out a few things about the health care system in Canada that might make you think twice about universal health care. For example, when I busted up my knee back in October, I had to wait over 8 hours 'til I could finally see a doctor. My mom, who had lupus, had to get her bone marrow levels checked by a specialist and it took her over 16 months to get it. Granted I would have rather waited 8 hours to see a doctor than to have to pay 10’s of thousands of dollars to do so, but my mom…she was sick dammit and we don’t have enough doctors because you guys have all the good doctors, because there is so much more money to be made as a doctor in the States. You may not be able to provide health care to everyone without some people being left behind, but your quality of doctors and health care in general is pretty much unparalled anywhere in the world. I would love to see the States adopt a universal health care system, as that would maybe mean more doctors would stay in Canada, but I could see that being a reason why Americans would not want universal health care.
Golden, you would still have to wait 8 hours in the US to get your knee checked in the ER.
In the documentary they showed the propaganda that came out when the idea of Socialized healthcare came about, and they made it look all Communist and shit, and thats why Americans were talked out of it. Maybe the film glamorized universal healthcare a little bit, but there are a lot of people being denied healthcare and its a little ridiculous. people need to be taken care of!
The basic premise is that with privatized health care, you get more advanced health care technology and better doctors, BUT if you don’t have a job that provides a health plan/has a shitty one/you can’t afford a private company, you are fucked. With socialized health care, you pay more in taxes but it evens out because seeing a doctor or going to the hospital are free (you’ll still pay for elective surgery and certain other things).
I can see the advantages and disadvantages of each. What I can tell you, from personal experience, is that American hospitals are not as speedy and great as they’re made out to be. When I sliced my fingers at work, I went to the emergency room at the hospital that’s a 10 minute drive from my work, if even that. There was an EMPTY emergency room, and they still made me wait to see a doctor for almost a half hour. First they make you fill out a bunch of insurance information and bullshit, and then they make you wait again, and then they finally take care of you. While my hand was throbbing in pain and I still had crap towels wrapped around it from my job, I saw a group of doctors and nurses chatting down the hall. My injury wasn’t serious, but I was pissed off because it was as though they were completely oblivious of their own job.
What’s more, I now have to pay for my own health insurance. I have absolute minimum coverage, which means they’ll pay for an ambulance ride and maybe some of prescription costs, but little else. This costs me a bit over $80 a month. However, when I was sick a week ago, I had to wait a few days to get in to see my family doctor. I could have gone to the emergency room, but I can’t afford to. At various points I felt bad enough that I would have gone if I had insurance, but since I don’t…
No, the US ranks 37
Teh_Edit: The WHO list:
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
people are pretty passionate about health care.
for good reason, I suppose.
I’ve never really had to deal with it. I hope my parents continue taking care of my health care now that I’m not in college.
::leaves thread::
Your perspective on health care changes once you have a kid.
Here in Washington, EVERY baby is covered through the state until his or her first birthday. Alice just turned six months, and I don’t get healthcare through my employer. I’m starting to seriously think about looking for a new job that’ll help me out on some health insurance. I rarely need it, but my daughter HAS to have insurance. I guess I’m not getting any younger either.
I doubt many of the countries listed are on the absolute bleeding edge of medical technology like the U.S. is, though. Whether that’s because we have privatized health care or not is debateable…
^^^ Regardless…lots of countries with Universal Health Care suffer at the hands of it as well.