Sicko..a review

Today I watched the Michael Moore (MM) movie called "Sicko". Typically I don't watch movies in theaters, but my FIL is in town and we had to entertain him. But more on that tomorrow.

So I am a die-hard liberal married to a socialist Canadian. Which is strange considering our finances. But I am a firm supporter and believer in universal healthcare. I believe it is short-sighted for people to think they are covered even my employer insurance. Why? Because imagine you are vacationing in Hawaii and crack your head on a surfboard. Then you go to the hospital, and are told you have to pay a lot of money, 50% because you are an out of network hospital, using an out of network doctor whose costs are considered "unreasonable" to your home state insurance.

Hmm...gee you'd be up the creek at that point. So how is it possible that people who work and pay for insurance would be so screwed? Well it can and does happen all the time. And the yet people believe a universal system is bad?

Watch the movie. I believe that MM overexaggerated the faults of the US system, but there are many problems. I also know he understates the waiting time for the Canadian, UK, and French universal systems. Being married to a Canadian, he says there are waiting times for medical treatments, but they can be shorter than the US system. What????

Well think how long it takes to get "pre-approval" for treatment? Or how much the insurance company fights paying for treatments? The film Sicko shows how much the average american has to struggle. But do they even think about universal healthcare? No.

Mainly because it's been demonized by the government. Truth is Canadians pay only 10% of federal taxes to their universal health care system. Americans pay 14.6% of their taxes because of skyrocketing costs of healthcare. Here's a link to check out. So if universal health care cost less why are using a capitalistic system?

But it does cost more in increased government taxes. Something which MM did not talk about in Sicko. Instead he focused on all the free care people receive from their governments. He did not address that it calls for increased tax revenues.

But why aren't we willing to change? MM suggests because Americans are afraid of revolting against the government. A corrupt government in bed with insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and doctors. Also when he interviewed people in universal healthcare countries, they said they care about society in the whole and not just themselves.

And perhaps that is the root of the problems. Americans care about me, me, me, and never consider the bigger picture. If we had a socialized system imagine being able travel anywhere without fear. Imagine not worrying about losing your job or finding one to provide health insurance because you were covered by the taxes you paid? And that employers would no longer be able to skirt hiring you for 35 hours to not pay you health coverage?

Things might change. People might reconsider their lives. Definitely if we had universal system less people would need to declare Bankruptcy for medical catastrophes. The number #1 cause of BK is medical bills.

I would not believe ever point in the film Sicko. It's got a major liberal bias. However I do think it raises valid points to be thought mulled over. Perhaps when all is said and done you'll still think every man for himself and socialized medicine crap. But at least watching the film it will make you aware what socialized medicine is. It will also make you think about how easy it is to slip from a comfortable middle class existence to bankrupt by the wrong medical tragedy.