I have yet to see Michael Moore's latest documentary, Sicko, about the American health care industry, but I look forward to it. America's approach to health care reflects both a blatant indifference to its people and a patent myopia on the business side that, no doubt, proves counter-productive to those responsible for the status quo. It's time that we move forward on this issue; perhaps Moore's movie will be a much needed political catalyst to advancing things.

As you know, health related costs are the number one cause of bankruptcies in America. 47 million Americans have no health insurance - and so are completely exposed to fate and the avariciousness of insurance companies and the health care system. If any of those 47 million get sick, and they choose to be treated, then they effectively mortgage their lives to these companies whose objective is not to do the most good, but to make the most money.

As things are now, these 47 million only find themselves in front of a doctor during emergencies; most often in the emergency room. No annual physicals. No regular pap smears. No prostate exams. No prenatal care. No well baby care. They see doctors when bones are broken, when they suffer from severe trauma, or when the accumulated impact of a lifetime of medical neglect catches up to them. This approach reflects a severe case of moral retardation: as I've written, the right to healthcare is at least as critical to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" than any of our, so called, inalienable rights.

Moreover, even from a business standpoint, our health system operates nonsensically. For those who seek to profit off of human misery, wouldn't it make sense to make regular 'well care' as widely available as possible so as to prevent some of the catastrophic costs that come from a lifetime of neglect? For example, untreated diabetes can be the gateway to all manner of health ills from heart disease, to kidney failure, to lower limb amputations - each costing many many times more than a steady program of regular medical prevention and care. If America embraced a more human centered approach that included 'well care' for all, then insurance companies and hospitals wouldn't be confronted with as many of the more serious cases from the currently uninsured for which they will never be able to collect. They'd actually save money by limiting losses that come from serving patients who were forced to undergo serious surgeries costing astronomical amounts.

The standard attack on the idea of universal health care is that it will be "socialized medicine". Well, to someone who has NO health insurance or access to medical care, I'm sure that doesn't sound too bad! No doubt, there will always be Americans who have the means and the inclination to spend more for more health services. I can't imagine any corner of the economy where if someone wanted to spend money, there wouldn't be all manner of folks lined up to take it. Certainly health care will be no different. Providing a basic level of quality health care for all Americans is the right thing to do, though, and I enthusiastically support efforts to finally make this happen. It's the least that America can do in a country that actually creates so many of its citizens' health problems via the promotion of profitable but unhealthy lifestyle choices, pollution of the environment, unhealthy food thrust upon us, and hazardous work conditions, not to mention the constant stress heaped on the 'have nots' who struggle daily just to keep their families clothed and fed.

This is an issue that is long overdue to be resolved in a nation as wealthy as ours. In a country that has the ability to keep so many more of its citizens healthy, it is a sin that it does not. Hopefully, Moore's movie will advance the debate on universal health care and insurance reform while contributing to an eventual solution for all!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: MBM,

Perhaps a graduated pay scale for health care, then? They have something like this in Georgia... It is excellent if you aren't middle class....

It would be better if they did not exclude middle class incomes.. or in truth, what they perceive to be middle class incomes! grrrrr...

Michael Moore does a wonderful job of taking it to CNN on their complicity in the problems of health care in this country - as well as the war etc.

Check this out: link

18,000 Americans a year die because they can't afford to buy health insurance in this country. Every other industrialized nation has realized that allowing profit to drive the healthcare system is immoral and wrong. Moreover, it is counterproductive to maintaining a healthy populous.

When are we going to figure out what the rest of the "developed" world knows?

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Every other industrialized nation has realized that allowing profit to drive the healthcare system is immoral and wrong.

But then, every other industrialized nation has realized the immorality and wrongness of the death penalty, too.

quote:

Originally posted by MBM:
Michael Moore does a wonderful job of taking it to CNN on their complicity in the problems of health care in this country - as well as the war etc.

Check this out: link

what's up with Sanjay Gupta trying to take on Michael Moore about the healthcare system? is he attention seeking or what?

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Originally posted by negrospiritual:

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Originally posted by MBM:
Michael Moore does a wonderful job of taking it to CNN on their complicity in the problems of health care in this country - as well as the war etc.

Check this out: link

what's up with Sanjay Gupta trying to take on Michael Moore about the healthcare system? is he attention seeking or what?

Actually it is because Moore slammed Gupta's piece which mentioned what he thinks are errors in "Sicko" when he reviewed it.