What's So Bad About Universal Health Care?

Last night I happened to be channel cruising on my cable system and dropped into Michael Moore’s documentary “SICKO”, examining America's health care crisis.  I had heard a lot about it over the past year or two but never had the opportunity to view it.

RENT IT OR SEE IT SOMEHOW!!

It is classic Michael Moore in terms of his hyperbolic yet understated reaction to what he finds when he explores the health care systems of Canada, the UK, and France, and then compares those systems to what we have here in the US, but the people he meets and the stories they tell will give you a sense of shame and anger that will remain with you for a long time.

God Bless him, he goes to all these countries and walks the halls of the hospitals, clinics and doctor’s offices, and actually talks (in more than 30 second sound bites) to real people who participate in these systems—both health care workers and patients.  He holds round-table discussions with expatriated Americans who live in these countries and who have experienced both systems as well as native born citizens in each country.

The picture that emerges is shocking, really.  All the myths that health industry lobbyists would have you believe regarding long waits and citizen dissatisfaction are just that – myths.  I am sure that some people are unhappy with some things, no system is perfect.  That is endemic to any bureaucracy.  But the picture that emerges of the lives of people who are not always thinking about being bankrupted by medical costs will give you pause……they seem so…..relaxed!   They all seem content with the health care systems in their own countries, and are amused and sympathetic with our preoccupation with cost; and horrified with the lack of readily available care, both critical and preventative, that  we experience here in America.  I guess you would expect as much from a Michael Moore documentary.

But, if you listen closely and really ponder the difference between what you see on the screen and how we all feel about the care we get here in the US, you will be so disgusted and shamed by what you see and hear that you will want to call your representatives in Congress and tell them to get off their fat asses and just change the system!  The tales of despair and downright neglect for our people are ….overwhelming!

I am left with the images of desperate economically underprivileged people  remaining sick and  no one caring about them.  I see case after case of middle class and working class citizens bankrupt or unable to get needed treatment because insurance companies deny them coverage or benefits.

And by the way, how come anyone over 65 in our country is not desperate when it comes to things medical?  Could it be that Medicare takes the worry out of getting care?  Omigod, does that mean we are socialists at heart??  A universal health care system for old people?  What about the rest of us???

I am not preaching socialism here, I am preaching humanism and morality for God’s sake!  Look at the statistics!  Our rankings in the international community for life expectancy, mortality, infant mortality and illness among the population fall lower than 30th place in all cases!

These are facts!  We don’t care about our population!  Money is the driving force behind health care in this country.  Private hospitals deny care to people who can’t pay, and are content to see people die in their emergency rooms waiting for transport to public hospitals!  Insurance companies are only concerned with how much money they can squeeze out of their enrollees and not what care they actually need.  There is no focus on preventative care here in America, while in other societies there is a constant preoccupation with preventative measures.

Wake up everyone!  We don’t have it so good here!  Our priorities are not right!  Watch this documentary and you decide, but watch it you must!  And then, for all our sakes, take some kind of action!  Before it is too late......

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