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This week, Mr. and Mrs. Madville Times got to see Michael Moore's newest documentary, SiCKO. As regular readers can surmise from previous posts on health care, Moore's latest work gets two big thumbs up from these reviewers. The movie is emotionally and morally exhausting, and that's a good thing. It is hard to see America failing to live up to its ideals, and even harder to leave the theater without feeling like joining the fight to restore those ideals.
The members of the Zaniya Project need to see SiCKO. The movie makes clear right from the start that, in seeking ways to cover the uninsured, the Zaniya Project is focusing on the wrong part of the issue. The problem, as Michael Moore makes clear, is not the millions of people nationwide who lack health insurance. The real problem is the millions more who have insurance but are being denied coverage by a system that makes profits by not providing services and protects its billion-dollar interests with lobbyists and campaign contributions that drown out the voices of the majority of Americans who want a system that serves the common good.
So call your local Zaniya Project members and take them to see SiCKO. You may not enjoy this movie, but you'll learn a lot. And the Zaniya Project Task Force may realize that the road to a health care system that serves all South Dakotans runs through Canada, the UK, and France, not Massachusetts or Governor Rounds's insurance agency.
Drinking Liberally Update (11/15/2024)
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In Politics: Nationally: The Election is over and the wrong side won. I
have nothing to contribute to the barrels of ink being used by Pundits to
explain a...
2 days ago
I know the US healthcare system needs reform, but Michael Moore?! Better ideas come from Rush Limbaugh's big sweaty mouth (which is to say none of course)
ReplyDeleteYes, Michael Moore. Like him or not, he demonstrates that America fails to live up to the ideals that Limbaugh and others spew, and he does so more artfulyand powerfully than Limbaugh. Moore is a patriot: all of his documentaries are about how he loves America and hates to see America do things wrong.
ReplyDeleteI have to disagree with you, Cory, on Michael Moore. There are others who point out problems in our society and do more to fix them than the loud-mouthed, nasty Moore.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the system maybe needs reform, but having the gov't take it over is not the answer IMO for all the obvious reasons given many times over.
Another note on this issue, we just had our first grandchild who wasn't expected to live even but surprised the docs that the problems he was expected to have did not materialize. Thanks to prayers we all agree! He does still have an issue though and has been in NICU and is having surgery this morning. Hopefully things go well.
ReplyDeleteHe is getting excellent care immediately when needed. I would hate to trust that to the layers of a gov't bureaucracy deciding what he needs, when he needs it, how much care he needs, etc. What non-medical person in the gov't would decide these issues at the expense of the patient?
And yes, his parents do have insurance which should cover most of his care.
Moore's documentaries are not about how much he loves America, they are about how much he hates it. He is a populist and he may love the little people with every grease-soaked fiber of his being (populists for some reason exclude the elite as being a legitimate part of 'the people'). However, he hates many things that distinguish America from say...France. Many of us are gun-toting, spiritual, capitalist pigs who believe in military intervention and that part of the American Identity Michael Moore wants nothing more than to bash into dust.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the Canadian system is better than the US system. I don't think it significantly worse either. Wikipedia is fair on this subject. Where the US needs the most improvement is in removing people's insecurities. Our outcomes are good here, medically speaking, but the level of bankruptcies in the US caused by medical bills is completely unacceptable.
Phaedrus couldn't be more wrong. Listen to Moore's own words. he makes clear he is a proud (and gun-toting -- see Bowling for Columbine) American. He doesn't exclude the elites from the people, but he expects the elites not to exclude the rest of the people from America's blessings, not just wealth, but more importantly liberty.
ReplyDelete"I don't think the Canadian system is better than the US system. I don't think it significantly worse either."
--So if the quality is the same but Canadians get it for half (or a third?) the price, don't both human decency and free-market common sense say we should follow the Canadian model?
Note that the above-linked article ["Per Capita Health Care Costs Triple Canada's," ConsumerAffairs.com, 2003.08.21] offers the following on administrative costs: "The study puts the administrative cost of the U.S. system at $294 billion per year, compared to about $9.4 billion in Canada. That translates to a per-person cost of $1,059 in the U.S. and $307 in Canada. A similar study, conducted in 1991, put per-capita costs in the U.S. at $450 and Canadian costs at one-third of that." Hmm -- looks like a steady, long-term phenomenon.
The article continues: "The study by Dr. Steffi Woolhandler of the Harvard School of Medicine found that Americans spend more on administrative costs because of the many private companies supplying insurance coverage. The multitude of companies create increased paperwork while Canadian doctors send their claims to a single insurer, the government." Imagine that: private industry creates more paperwork and bureaucracy than government.
Heck, while we're at it, did someone say we spend more because we get better care and better medical technology? Oops -- this study disagrees:
"The U.S. continues to have the highest per capita health care spending among industrialized countries, according to the most recent data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In 2003, U.S. spending per capita ($5,635) was two-and-a-half times the comparable median for OECD countries ($2,280) It also represented a significantly greater percentage of gross domestic product (15% vs. 8%).
"Higher prices, not higher utilization or resources, appears to be the main driver. More spending does not translate into more services. In 2003, the U.S. had fewer physicians, nurses, and hospital beds than the median OECD country. And while the U.S. adopts many clinical technologies earlier than other nations, ultimately it does not make them more widely available, nor does it always provide the most sophisticated procedures compared with other countries." [emphasis mine.
Authors: Gerard F. Anderson, Ph.D., Bianca K. Frogner, Roger A. Johns, M.D., Uwe E. Reinhardt, Ph.D.; Summary Writers: Linda Prager and Deborah Lorber, "Health Care Spending and Use of Information Technology in OECD Countries," Health Affairs, May/June 2006, posted online by The Commonwealth Fund, May 10, 2006.]
Canada doesn't get the same thing for a third or half the money. Demographically America is much older than Canada and America doesn't have the inexcusable waiting times for treatment that Canada has. Canada doesn't have nearly the amount of access to technology such as MRI and CT Scanners as the US has (for which Canadians just come to America if they happen to need) The study you reference is mostly about the adoption of Information Technology ie. the creation of a computerized record system. It is not about medical devices and advancement. It only mentions "the U.S. adopts many clinical technologies earlier than other nations, ultimately it does not make them more widely available, nor does it always provide the most sophisticated procedures compared with other countries." Which frankly a rather mushy statement that the US is not ALWAYS the best (just most of the time) and not about socialized medicine anyway, but a broader study about OECD countries. America foots the bill for medical advancement that many socialized countries can then take advantage of. Canadians aren't paying for the same thing as Americans and America would be paying at an even higher level than Canada if we ever adopted their system.
ReplyDeletePaperwork in the private insurance sector isn't a valid comparison. Private insurance is not just answering to their own needs. They are also completing every form the government mandates they to produce for them to collect from Medicare/Medicaid as well as the paper trail that any sane company needs to create to protect themselves from possible litigation, also something the government doesn't fear. Anyway, if there is so much less paperwork, why does it take so long to get treatment? Having a streamlined bureaucracy doesn't do a lot of good when supply doesn't meet demand.
I agree we can do a lot to reduce the administrative costs of medicine here. I do not agree that the creation of a single-payer system is at all a way to do it. And I believe it would degrade health care for us and the rest of the world.
Michael Moore says he is a proud American. He's not lying though, he's just deluding himself. It must be very much the same way he thinks he believes in the 2nd amendment while creating an anti-gun documentary.
Timeline: Make appointment at specialist. 4-6 months ahead of time~~~appointment at noon -be early they said(take day of work off).
ReplyDeleteGet there at 11:30 a.m.
Wait until after 1 p.m. to get into exam room.
Wait until 2:15 to see doctor. Doctor appears at that time - spends 20 minutes-sends you to lab-by the way took 5 minutes at the lab.
This was all for a doctor that was not the kind of doctor to be called away to emergency surgery or anything like that.
Today the clinic called and said they are trying to gather all the paperwork together to complete his folder and they will eventually have it complete - duh. This time problem is not unusual at all. Personally, I have sat for over 4 hours for an appointment!
Yes, we have insurance but--health care system does need help. I haven't seen Michael Moore documentaries but it is getting the attention to where the problem is it sounds like. Did the documentary get your attention?
For more on government and health care, read this amusing and intelligent letter to the editor from TheCitizen.com, Fayetteville, GA.
ReplyDelete