Sneak Peak at SiCKO - Looks good!

[IndyOp]

Run time: 01:31 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFUtAaeYxno   Posted on YouTube: May 20, 2007 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: May 22, 2007 By DU Member: IndyOp Views on DU: 1980

 
Go Mike!

:woohoo:

[Greeby]

1. Romanticizing our system just a tad Mike?

Besides, who knows how long it'll last when both sides of the Commons want to privatise everything?

[IndyOp]

2. I think you might not know how damned romantic your system looks from over here...

Go to a doctor during an emergency? Ha! I teach for a Big 10 University and for several months this year the health insurance company refused to give a fair deal to the one and only hospital within a 60-mile radius. Oh, yes - and the hospital runs ALL of the emergency medical stops / promptcare facilities -- where you go if your doctor isn't open, but you don't need the hospital. They've worked it out, so I have hospitalization again, but during that period I got a dose of what 10's of millions of Americans face all the time.

We must fight privatization of EVERYTHING...

[SteelPenguin]

12. Free Childbirth? Seems great to me

We didn't have insurance when our first child was born, and needed a c-section. The hospital bill was $18,000. "luckily" we were fairly poor at the time and a charity group affiliated with the hospital picked up our tab eventually (after my wife spent half her time the first few months of our daughters life appling for financial assitance), though we had to finance it initially and pay a large monthly payment for having a baby.

So yeah. I like your system better. Sorry.

[SemperEadem]

14. Well, try to get medical treatment in the US without adequate

private insurance and you'll see just how awful your health care system is.

[El Supremo]

3. I love Michael Moore, but...

how much do these Brits have to pay for their government health care insurance? I need to see the whole movie.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. My sister lived in the UK for about 5 years

She said it was free. But that was 20+ years ago. My son's girlfriend is Canadian and her family pays $88 a year for health care.

[CAG]

6. Nothing is free. They just pay it in taxes. That's like saying our roads are

free just because I don't have to pay something everytime I get onto a city/county/state/interstate road.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. It's free in the sense you don't write a check at time of service

which matters a LOT to most people.

[MindMatter]

18. "Free" is not the big issue

The big thing is that health cost can bankrupt you if you get sick and don't have any -- or enough -- coverage. That cannot happen in any other advanced country because the risk is shared evenly by all -- the lucky pay the same as the unlucky.

In America, the profit motive causes companies to cherry pick -- to try to sell insurance to those with the lowest risk. And then they complain because the costs of indigent care kill the hospitals.

Private enterprise is probably the best way to design the fastest computer. It is a lousy way to deliver health care.

[lefador]

10. According to an AMA report...

... US citizens pay on a per capita average 2x to 3x what most EU citizens pay for health care related expenses. On the ratings of quality of health care provided in the same study, the US ranked 28th. So we pay 2x to get a service that is an order of magnitude worse. But rest assured that socialized medicine is "crappy" as I have been reminded over and over again by some former right wing friends.

I lived in both the EU and the US, and the difference is like night and day. Here, I have to pay for my insurance out of my own pocket, the HMO restricts me to where and who I can see, and I have always to pay the Russian Roulette game of "which prescription drugs are covered." And no matter how much I pay, I also have co-pay and deductibles. The whole concept of deductible is unheard of in Europe. The region I lived in Europe had an ambulatory system which mandated a clinic to exist for every x-thousand residents, which meant I never had to go to an emergency room for a cold or a flu or a consult. Everyone gets issued a smart card with their medical history, so in case of an emergency the first responders can swipe it and asses what the patient is allergic to, previous conditions, etc. The same card is also used to keep track of treatment when going through medical observation/post-op etc. By law they also required a pharmacy to exist for every x-citizens, they are usually co-ops owned by pharmacists themselves not big corporations. And pharmacies are just that pharmacies, not mini-marts like here. Also pharmacies don't have to do binding, which means they never have to do pill counts since they use the packaging from factory, what they do is they swipe your health care card and they look up the prescription that the doctor puts into the database after a consult. The pharmacist is a pharmacist not a middle man/woman between a pharmaceutical corporation and insurance companies, and gets to asses the medication and/or possible interactions and consults, the system knows my earning bracket and adjusts the prices of the medicaments accordingly. Since I was a student, it meant that most of the prescriptions were free. They also keep track of which package/batch I got for my medications, and if there are any sort of recalls or the pharmacists gets a breaking interaction notice they contact me accordingly.

The hospitals are fairly clean, and the staff is not as overworked as in the US. They have fairly strong labor unions over there so doctors forced to have 36hr shifts are a minority not the norm (some surgeries require continuous evaluation). In the region I lived, pregnant women were never seen working past their first trimester. In fact I believe it was illegal for employers to have pregnant women working after a specific pregnancy stage. The health care system keeps track of both the mum and the baby through the pregnancy and birth. And by law the parents had to meet a specific set of doctor appointments to keep track of the health of the baby, if you missed several of these appointments (by neglect) the doctor would report you to social services. Businesses could not fire you for being pregnant, in fact they were required by law to guarantee your job to be there for you when your returned from maternity leave. And maternity leaves were 1 to 2 years at 80% of your salary. So they love new born life over there as much as them republicans do over there, the main difference between those godless European socialists and the god fearing Capitalist GOP is that at least them Euros put their money where their mouth is.


I am not saying that the system over there is perfect, however there exists a baseline over the EU that is light years ahead of what we get over here. They also get the choice of private health care that is parallel to the public system. Taxes are higher, but honestly when you factor in what you have to pay here for insurance, co-pays, premiums, and what not, it comes to be more than what you would have had to pay in taxes anyways. And you can't beat the feeling of walking in-out of a medical institution w/o ever having to see a bill or statement.

[knitter4democracy]

11. I was going to post about this.

Frankly, I'd pay higher taxes for better health care coverage and better hours for my hubby. Yeah, he's a doctor, and we're stuck with a crappy Health Savings Account that says we have to pay $2400 for any medical cost before coverage kicks in. That's a lot of money for us, and it means over $200/month for prescriptions until we hit the limit.

Here, we have higher maternal death rates, fetal death rates, and lower life expectancy. Yeah, that private health care idea is working out really well. :eyes:

[SteelPenguin]

13. They pay less than you do

When you factor in your company's contribution, if any, which believe me...they count on their records as how much it costs them to hire you....you pay more than peopel with universal health care do.

[9119495]

16. It's not $400 a month...and that is what I pay FOR A SINGLE PLAN!

My employee pool has older people in it so a single plan is $400 with family running as high as $1400 per month.

So "why not enlarge our group?" the insurer says so we can spread out the risk? Then he says, "a larger group of people would make things more affordable." We'ver got 3000 people in the group now and the price is still the same. If insurers want larger groups...lets give them one. And I mean exactly one...the USA. Using their own language it would be a victory for us all (emphasis on all).

[dipsydoodle]

19. This is how it works - sort of anyway

In ADDITION to income tax - above £ 5000 a year earnings employees pay 11% of gross pay and employers pay 12.8% in addition. That's up to ceiling of c. £35000 a year. Above that employers still pay 12.8% and employees about 1%. Employee's contributions stop at 60 for the girls and 65 for the guys. Self employed people differ all the wqay through - they pay about 4% flat.

The original concept was that these payments covered health and pensions - free health care for all and guaranteed pension at retirement. The NH %'s have crept up over the years and are now refered to as stealth taxes -the government prefers only to refer to income tax %'s alone and not dicuss NH % levels.

Unfortunately nowadays it just another tax grouped in with income tax and pays for acts of lunacy like fucking wars in Iraq etc. Needless to say our healthcare system is creaking. There is no doubt that the problems are compounded by high levels of the high levels of immigration which have occured over the years.

If you take me as being a representative individual I've never had any of the issues or delays you read about from time to time but I've no doubt they do occur - there may be regional differences. When my appendix decided it didn't love me no more 5 years ago it was simply taken out the next day - no problem.

[emald]

5. cant wait to see the whole thing

to bad it won't change anything. gotta have profit, even on health care. greed has destroyed our country.

[annm4peace]

8. In America we just pay for the Viagra Commercials

and also for the pharmacy companies's sponsers of the Doctors and their staff's lunches.
Come on America and wake up !!!!

[orleans]

9. heard he got a standing ovation. way to go. n/t

[SemperEadem]

15. Can't wait to see this movie

Any candidate running for president in the US should have a litmus test applied to them regarding universal health care in this country as it relates to their stance on pro-life: does pro-life only apply to unborn babies or is it for having quality health care to all of those already breathing air? A 45 yr old doesn't have a right to maintenence of their life with regards to affordable, quality health care? Because I don't see how a pro-life candidate can credibly make that distinction and argue for one while ignoring or denying the other.

[The Sushi Bandit]

17. Cool!!

[dipsydoodle]

20. THAT ONE'S BEEN BLOCKED

Copywrite issue

now see here while the going's good :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2sFT7T0mCs