'Sicko' film called mostly accurate

by Brian White (Subscribe to Brian White's posts)
Jul 2nd 2007 10:27AM

Michael Moore's Sicko film opened this past week to both fans and non-fans of the universal health care promotion he highlights in the film. When CNN investigated, it found that much of the information in the film was indeed accurate, although some was dramatized in perfect Michael Moore fashion.

Is universal health care needed in the U.S.? The numbers themselves do not lie -- over 40 million uninsured in the U.S. along with health care rates that are higher than anywhere in the world. Is something broken in our health care system?

That seems like an obvious statement -- health care in the U.S. is the laughing stock of the world. But what is the answer? Universal, government-funded health care? Sicko will certainly bring this question and others back into the limelight when it's needed most -- in time for next year's presidential elections. Timing is everything.

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Comments (7)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

eckre 7-02-2007 @ 7:38PM

like him or not, this needed to be done. The American system is a joke and a laughing stalk and you are owned by the corporations.

ESK 7-02-2007 @ 12:03PM

Clearly something is broken, and as with everything else, complete deregulation is the answer.

Read Crisis of Abundance if you'd like information beyond the socialist "State is Everything" line.

EM 7-02-2007 @ 1:13PM

Most of the serious (ie, non-fringe) proposals for universal health care involve some combination of the following:

- Expanding Medicare and Medicaid eligibility. (Allowing 55-65 year olds to buy Medicare coverage, for instance, and/or raising the maximum income cutoff for Medicaid).

- Vouchers for low/middle-income workers to help them pay for private insurance

- Laws requiring all businesses over a certain size to offer health care to all their full-time employees, and mandatory private insurance for anybody who's not covered by a group plan or public plan.

Most also incorporate malpractice reform, incentives for adoption of electronic medical records systems, and paperwork/reporting streamlining.

All of the Democratic Presidential candidates (and one of the Republicans) for 2008, as well as a number of states (including California, Massachusetts, and New Mexico) are proposing similar multifaceted approaches.

ESK 7-02-2007 @ 1:37PM

I don't understand why universal health care is a goal? It implies two things:
1. Health insurance is a right
2. many individuals will be forced to carry health insurance against their will (look at the numbers, plenty of people who can afford health care choose not to).

Can anyone seriously argue these two are true?

Imagine the implications of "free" (only free to societal leeches who pay no taxes) health care. People won't be going to the hospital simply for a broken arm, they will be going to the hospital for EVERYTHING. Hangnail? Hospital. Stubbed toe? Hospital. Headache? Hospital. Cat broke a leg...hospital is cheaper than a vet (won't get service probably, but there is no disincentive to go).

By the way, how do %50ish taxes sound? Check the tax rates of socialist Europe.

Patty 7-02-2007 @ 8:41PM

Yeah, let me eat cake! Mmmm mmmm mmm.

EM 7-02-2007 @ 6:05PM

UHC does not imply that healthcare is a right.

UHC does imply that healthcare is not a perfect market, and that letting it up to the free market results in collective action problems that are best solved through the participation of a strong public entity.

It's the same reason we have universal police protection, universal fire protection, and universal freeway infrastructure. If you leave it up to private entities on their own, the people who don't have it end up a drain on the economy.

And UHC does not imply that it is free. Even in countries with UHC, there is a copay. It will be possible and desirable to institute a small copay that is affordable to the poor yet large enough to dissuade people from making frivolous appointments.

christine wolf 7-08-2007 @ 8:15PM

I saw Sicko this weekend and it is the best assessment of what is going on with healthcare in this country. Unfortunately, it also left you with the feeling that the only thing a person can really do to change things is to buy a plane ticket and move to either Canada, England or Cuba. The problem is so immense and the folks running this country so incompetent that it does appear to really be a hopeless case. It's all about the $$$$$$$$ and very little else.