my review of "Sicko"

[kag]

Posted here:

http://www.katieallisongranju.com/20...and-saw-sicko/

Let me know what you thought, if you've seen it yet.

KO, what did you think? DB?

Katie

[F-Stop]

I'm going to go see this sometime this weekend.

I'm a contract worker, and i'm an American with no health insurance. I'm single and I don't know how much it costs, but i'm guessing it's pretty damned expensive.

[jah]

My thoughts.

[gypsy]

I just don’t get our system. Why do we do this to ourselves? Why? I understand the concept of capitalism and how much it helps us, but if you were sitting in front of a blank screen and had to draw up our medical system, would you do it this way? Would you say “Well, we know we have doctors on one side and people on the other. Why don’t we have this company in the middle to make a profit?” Let me say it again: insurance companies aren’t there to help us. They’re there to help themselves. And we don’t need them!

if this movie makes any significant contribution to the national dialogue on health care, it will be in really injecting this simple idea into the mainstream debate. politicians have tapdanced around the subject for decades, because the insurance industry has so much money to use to reward or punish lawmakers. among the major problems with the clinton health care plan was that it tried to protect itself from those attacks by building the existing insurance industry into its equation. which made for a hopelessly muddled plan, and the insurance industry savaged it anyway.

i don't have any great hope that congress or any forthcoming president will really take on the insurance industry directly, but if enough public anger starts simmering, it will make it easier for at least incremental reforms.

[fluffy]

which made for a hopelessly muddled plan, and the insurance industry savaged it anyway.

but given the number of americans without healthcare, id say plenty of people are mad at healthcare costs and are ready for a viable alternative. you can only pummel the poor with overpriced healtcare costs before they fight back.

it will be interesting to see how this movie is recieved. it was easy to villanize moore over the war in iraq and bush. this issue is something that plays across the board and its sort of hard to make healthcare for everyone a liberal evil, aside from the cost to the taxpayer.

[jah]

You know, that was in the movie, too. In Europe, people get mad and protest. In America, people get mad and complain on message boards.

We might be ready for an alternative, but we want it from the top down.

[Michael]

I have a neighbor who is a cardiothorasic surgeon. I asked him once what percentage of collections the practice projects for its billing. 25%. For every dollar the practice bills for, it actually collects 25 cents. Much of the discrepency between the billing and collections can be attributed to providing care for the indigent. I'm not sure what that says. But it says something.
~m.

[Randall]

I'm pretty sure I know what Moore is getting at, and that I'd be up in arms after seeing "Sicko." Since I can feel the outrage already, I'm going to go see "Live Free or Die Hard" later this evening and ponder on what kind of health insurance Bruce Willis and that guy from the Mac commercials have.

[kag]

One interesting thing about the movie was that Moore didn't focus completely on uninsured Americans - a huge problem itself - but mostly focused on people with supposedly "good" insurance. He takes on what a big ripoff health insurance is, and how even if you get the care you need because you have insurance, you are then left with large copays, deductibles and uncovered costs that bury you in debt (and doctors and hospitals end up having to try to collect this money from you, at great cost and hassle to them).

[Mountain Girl]

you can only pummel the poor with overpriced healtcare costs before they fight back.

Or dump them at the mission because they have no insurance. Nice to see some of you last night!