I just finished watching Sicko on Google Video. I should have been asleep over an hour ago! I'm so upset by the video that I'm going to have trouble going to sleep even as late as it is now.
I'm very impressed with his treatment of the state of our health care system. It's worth watching!
It's no longer on Google Video, but we can still talk about it here. I can't wait for it to come out soon. I have my own issues with the healthcare industry.
I hate how it's geared for business and not to protect the lives of Americans. It's disgusting how many people go without health insurance because they can't afford it. It's horrible that people with serious health conditions can't get it because carriers won't take them on. It's unbelievable how people's lives are ruined when they spend days in the hospital and can't afford to pay tens of thousands in bills.Edited by: GranolaJoe on Jun 19, 2007 10:54:36 AM
"We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect." -Aldo Leopold
I work in healthcare and would love to relate some stories about my clients experiences with the wonderful state of affairs in insurance...I am hopeful that there is enough of a movement afoot to create serious reform of our system! Here are some personal experiences...
Two years ago, my wife, changed jobs and we all had to change insurance. Because I am self-employed, we decided at the time that I should apply for health insurance for myself and my 1.5 year-old daughter. Because we had already made that choice and the 1 month window to add/change insurance has just lapsed we were already commited. Then I found out that we were denied coverage, because, my daughter had eczema! She had some mild rashes that we treated with a topical ointment and, I presume, because eczema/atopic dermatitis carries an increase risk of asthma, we were denied outright!
So for 1 month we ended up without coverage while I attempeted and finally found coverage/exemption for never treating eczema. We got the exemption only because my wife went to residency with the medical director at the insurance company!
What angers me the most is that insurance companies are in the business of risk. But, they time and time again drop people for whatever reason they think up. If we had a bad condition pop up, which we did, 2 months later, we would have had to pay 5 thousand dollars or more out of pocket. For many families that would have put them over the edge, etc.
With my former business we ended up paying 1600 per month to cover myself and my partner and her family. That is close to 20,000 per year just for insurance! Needless to say, our overhead expenses caused us to lose money. Most small businesses cannot afford coverage on the margins that they operate.
Finally, as a mental health practitioner, I witness daily the dearth of coverage for most people. If mental health is covered it is severely rationed. And there are many roadblocks for providers, paperwork, credentialing, etc. that makes it very difficult to provide adequate treatment. So most people just do not get treatment until there symptoms are significantly disruptive to themselves or dangerous to society.
Aerangis it's great to see you back on the forums!
Thanks for sharing your personal stories about the irrational state of healthcare in our country today. I think almost every American has at least one horror story or experience in which they felt they were mistreated and treated less than human by insurance companies.
I went to see Sicko here in Denver and had the amazing experience of being with Donna Summer and her husband in the audience. They're the older couple at the beginning of the film who lost everything due to having multiple health complications all at once between them and going bankrupt from paying for it. Having them in the row in front of me made me feel their pain even more knowing they were present and suffering as they relived each moment.
What I just don't understand is HOW and WHY the healthcare industry went from being about caring for people and ensuring that everyone has a chance at health, to simply wanting to profit from people and not having any interest whatsoever in their well-being. Who had such a sheer lack of humanity and such immense selfishness that it has come to this? How could such an attitude exist in a country that prides itself on supposedly taking care of its people better and having more opportunities than anywhere else in the world?
I just can't process in my mind how anyone can be denied for a "pre-existing" condition. So basically people are treated as if they're somehow "no good," "rotten," "defective" or other, instead of being seen as HUMAN BEINGS IN NEED. It scares me deeply to think that someday my asthma, chronic pain or heart conditions will ever cause me great difficulty, and I can't count on an insurance company I pay considerably each month to protect me.
I won't delve too much into mental healthcare because that's a huge can of worms that I could rant about for a whole day...but I will express my disappointment about people's attitudes toward it, even in this day and age. It's sad that mental illness is still regarded with skepticism. I think it's sad that people must work to convince others that they are suffering and must work to have their needs addressed. I also think it's unfortunate that mental illness is abused by many as an excuse for committing crimes or avoiding responsibility, when there are people out there that truly are suffering and pay the price.
Anyway, I think that's enough ranting for now. Hopefully people will get mobilized to change things and ensure that universal healthcare someday becomes a reality
"We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect." -Aldo Leopold
Thanks GranolaJoe for the warm wishes. Here is a useful map of healthcare in the US put out by the Commonwealth Fund. From what I understand it is a well respected non-partisan group. See where your state falls. As a Coloradoan, I can say that we look better on the map because more of us are active (healthy lives score is 2/50) and healthy Our state and federal government needs to do a better job of creating better access to healthcare for all of its residents.
For those interested, the buzzword for mental health is "parity". This means equal coverage for mental illness under health insurance plans. Ask your state and federal congress people to support healthcare reform and mental health parity!
I saw an advanced preview last weekend, and was devastated. I knew things were bad... In a way, it reminds me of watching the man-made part of the Katrina disaster. This incredulous sense of how is this our country? How can this be happening?
The documentary focuses on people with insurance! We are so worried about socialized medicine because we might have to wait for surgery or get substandard care... Well, that's a lie. And that's what we have now with the insurance companies.
I also have two autoimmune disorders, and it really hit home watching people getting denied vital treatment.
I hope to write more about my thoughts about Sicko this weekend.
Here are some of the great quotes from film critics.
"Sicko is Moore's best film: a documentary that mixes outrage, hope, and gonzo stunts in the right proportions; that poses profound questions about the connection between health care and work; and that throws an unforgiving spotlight on what is, in both senses, the elephant in the room."1 –New York Magazine
"Sicko is the...most broadly appealing of Mr. Moore's movies [and], perhaps improbably, the funniest..."2 –New York Times
"[Moore] leavens his serious comedy with absurdist anecdotes. Funniest is that of the young woman, made unconscious by an auto collision and rushed to the hospital, who awakened to learn that her insurer had denied reimbursement for the ambulance because it wasn't 'preapproved.'"3 –Philadelphia Inquirer
"Filmmaker Michael Moore's brilliant and uplifting new documentary, Sicko,...never talks down or baits the audience."4 –Fox (!)
"Sicko is a movie whose time has come...In an era when the mainstream news media have lost the public trust to Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report, Moore's brutally comic take on matters of life and death is just the ticket...the weight of evidence Moore marshals for taking the profit motive out of medicine is overwhelming. In a summer of dumb, shameless drivel, Moore delivers a movie of robust mind and heart. You'll laugh till it hurts."5 –Rolling Stone
"I am not a devout Michael Moore fan by any means...[But] Sicko is a beyond brilliant, nonpartisan exposé on American politics that should be mandatory for every student in America...Yay for digging into the roots of our current fiasco. Yay for Michael Moore."6 –E! Online
Sanjay Gupta ran a report critical of Michael Moore and Sicko on CNN that raised some controversy in the media and the Web.
Last night Larry King allowed them to go head to head. I'm posting the videos here so you can check out what was said.
Personally, I think Gupta is directing misguided anger toward Moore and acted in a very patronizing way...
Part 1 Edited by: GranolaJoe on Jul 12, 2007 9:41:48 AM
"We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect." -Aldo Leopold
"We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect." -Aldo Leopold
"We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect." -Aldo Leopold
Michael Moore on Wolf Blitzer's show and Gupta's piece critical of Sicko
"We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect." -Aldo Leopold
I am making plans with friends to see it in the theater. What was the most surprising thing you found out from seeing Sicko?
...that the idea for HMOs got started way back in the 1970s under the auspices of "Tricky Dick" Richard Nixon ... now that was a shocker!
Michael Moore had to do some serious digging to find the segment of the Watergate Tapes where Nixon is talking about it ... and we've been burdened by our byzantine "healthcare" system ever since.
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