Get over it, Michael Moore is a first class journalist. You may have been at odds with his previous works, but can anyone out there deny that our health care system is in crisis, and despirately in need of examination, and "treatment?"
Moore writes, directs and produces thought provoking movies intended to enlighten, entertain and inform a sleeping and largely apathetic society on a variety of social ills. For his efforts, he has been criticised, harangued and been treated to public scrutiny such as the web site pictured above. Fortunately, Moore continues on despite all of this.
His latest documentary is on the American health care system, specifically focusing on insured patients, and their fight to receive the treatment they need to survive. The type of treatment most HMO's fight to deny in an endless quest to turn a profit. The type of costly treatment that can save a life, and turn a balance sheet upside down. The kind of treatment and procedures the insured thought they had been paying for throughout the years. "Sicko" the movie is being released this week in many markets, and here is an advance review from Salon magazine to wet your whistle while considering whether or not you want to spend your hard earned money on a movie of substance, or to opt for Shrek 23, or whatever.
"There is no mistaking the passion and political intelligence at work in "Sicko." It's both a more finely calibrated film and one with more far-reaching consequences than any he's made before. Moore is trying to rouse Americans to action on an issue most of us agree about, at least superficially. You may know people who will still defend the Iraq war (although they're less and less eager to talk about it). But who do you know who will defend the current method of health care delivery, administered by insurance companies whose central task is to minimize cost and maximize shareholder return? Americans of many different political stripes would probably share Moore's conclusions at the press conference: "It's wrong and it's immoral. We have to take the profit motive out of health care. It's as simple as that."
Salon magazine
6 comments:
What do Republicans want for Christmas this year?
Michael Moore to start dating Rosie O'Donnell. Wouldn't that get the blogs rolling?
This is why people from Canada and Britain come here for operations, MRIs, and the like? Every country that has "Hillary style" health-care has the worse record.
Canadians come here because of limited healthcare resources, causing moderate to huge waits for services.
Anytime anyone mentions healthcare in this country, someone mentions Hillary, the apparent poster boy for why no one, and I mean no one in government will lift a finger to improve the system. It's the third rail....try to improve it, and you will be scarred for life (along with Medicare and Medicaid). So we let things stay the same.
The problem is not in the insurance, it is our abysmally underfunded education system. In my mind, we should at least offer some kind of socialized, vocation specific education, not socialized medical care. A federally funded system where your child can get low cost training, and be mandated to perform "X" amount of years of medical work at a marginal, yet somewhat livable salary.
And yes, we should take a stronger look at the way the medical and pharmacutical industries are run and especially how they determine price points. In Canada, they wait for services, but pay half on a lot of the prescription drugs Americans pay through the nose for (no pun intended). Here it is the opposite.
Do I like the government stepping it? No, but does anyone have a better way to regulate the system? One has only to look at the care our veterans were receiving at Walter Reed to see that the government is a lousy health care provider. But where do we go from here?
We are in an educational and health care crisis in this country. Huges malpractice insurance premiums (and payouts) certainly are a factor. Enoromous profits by the drug companies are a factor as well (yes, I have heard the cost of R & D argument).
Medical care by class and social standing is what goes on here. The rich get the very best. The poor? Not so much. I think the first thing we do is strip all health benefits from all congressional leaders. Let them see first hand the skyrocketing costs involved, the issues with securing independant health care, and the health decisions they will receive based on money, and not medical need.
I think if this movie exposes issues and problems, then it is well worth the money and efforts to produce. Public awareness is the first step.
Hillary, Michael Moore, etc.
The right (and the left) needs to start attacking problems, and not people.
Greetings from the under insured and clinically obese left. Kimba
Money will not solve your educational woes Kimba. Are you referring to public schools?? Let me know so I can respond properly.
I am working today, but I hope you and your family are enjoying your Memorial Day weekend. Once again – every year – Google didn’t do a Memorial Day graphic. They do summer solstice, Halloween, Chinese New Year… you name it, they put a graphic up. Not Memorial Day. Pinko-Commies.
Don't let on to my lib friends, but I am increasingly in favor of school vouchers. Public schools will only improve if they feel a sense of competition for school revenue.
Also, I think that by the end of elementary school we should identify the very top performers and separate them from the average and sub par students. The sooner we can isolate and challenge them, the better our children, and the hopes for our nation, will be in the long run.
Students that are floundering by the start of high school should be deverted into a trade school type setting with a trade specific criterium. College simply is not in the cards for them, but still can acheive a level of success.
Any child who can pass the testing and rise to the top of his / her class should be guaranteed a spot at a state / federally funded college or university, either at a reduced, affordable rate, or free in exchange for sweat equity.
Hmmm,
What comes to mind?
Animal Farm...
1984...
Watership Down...
and the like
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