"Sicko": a movie review

[unless_spring]

Last Saturday Steve and I we went to see Michael Moore's movie "Sicko". I'm sure other reviewers have said what I'm about to say, but I'll add a "me too". "Sicko" is at its best when it shows how the health care system in the US is perverted by insurance companies, that hold all the power. It is based on a perverse system of incentives, because

Comments

[houstonkilt]

Moore may have a good point that the health care system in America needs an overhaul. He has the wrong approach by singling out socialist systems as the perfect solution. Anything the government chooses to regulate always ends up going badly.

[renegade500]

I've been wanting to see this movie, too, just haven't yet (probably after ArmadilloCon). Just this morning, I heard a story about a woman with a form of cancer so rare that no one does any studies on it (some kind of cancer in the sinuses), so there aren't any FDA-approved treatment plans for it.

Her cancer has metastisized now to her lungs, so two different oncologists want to put her on this medication that costs retail $4,600 a month. Her insurance company has repeatedly denied her claim to cover it, saying it's experimental, because it isn't approved for her original form of cancer (although it is approved for cancer in the lungs).

This is totally what's wrong with health care in the US! That, and it being so expensive that there are people who work full time and cannot get coverage.

I don't know the solution to the problem, but I do know the current system is broken.

[unless_spring]

> Her cancer has metastisized now to her lungs, so two different
> oncologists want to put her on this medication that costs retail
> $4,600 a month. Her insurance company has repeatedly denied her
> claim to cover it, saying it's experimental, because it isn't
> approved for her original form of cancer (although it is approved
> for cancer in the lungs).

Wow, this sounds like a story straight from "Sicko". Moore illustrates his point with similar stories of injustice that cost people their lives. He does indeed make a compelling case for corruptness of the current US health care system.

[hartmans]

I don't have a problem with national healthcare minimus. What I'm concerned about is a system wher I end up with less care so that the average can be better.

[raimondas]

Yes, current USA system is broken. And, yes, even the best socialist systems - we're not talking about Cuba here - have different severe issues, biggest of which is horrible wait times (as the anecdote about American tourist in Paris partially shows). I've heard couple healthcare systems mentioned that are radically different from both socialist and USA system, but these seem to have snowball's chance in hell being adopted. Singapore's healthcare system, for example, is being highly regarded, but after reading about it http://www.watsonwyatt.com/europe/pubs/healthcare/render2.asp?ID=13850 it seems to be closer to US version than to socialist versions. It is also somewhat controversial (http://rru.worldbank.org/Discussions/Discussion.aspx?id=23... )

I have not seen the movie but this was intertesting-

[noiseinmyhead]

One opinion piece I read mentioned that when comparing the US to Canada wait for elective surgery often the numbers sited are for hip replacement - of which 90% in the US are paid for my Medicare - and thus are government run health-care, not private payer surgeries.