Psst, Michael Moore: Health costs screw business, too
Because he’s a documentary filmmaker and not a politician, Michael Moore isn’t obliged to pretend that fixing America’s health-care system is a mere matter of realigning market forces. Moore’s new film, Sicko, makes a straightforward case for “socialized medicine.” Most other industrialized democracies have adopted some form of socialized medicine—Sicko visits France, Britain, and Canada—and while Moore can be faulted for depicting these health-care systems as flawless, the truth is that in most respects they are superior to the American system. Sicko tells story after heartbreaking story about ordinary people getting screwed out of the health-care benefits they thought they had coming. Yet one significant victim of America’s market-based health care system is left out: market capitalism itself.
I refer not to health insurers, nor to health maintenance organizations, nor to for-profit hospitals, but rather to businesses outside the health-care sector that are saddled with the growing cost of providing health insurance to their employees. This obligation puts American companies at a disadvantage with respect to foreign competitors whose governments provide health care. The most obvious victim, ironically, is a company Moore knows very well: General Motors. Because of health-care obligations, the automaker that Moore pilloried in his first film, Roger and Me, is fighting for its life.
In other Sicko news, Google dis’ed the movie so as to not upset the health care industry who spends $$$ on advertising on Google. Or did it?
I am only 14 years old
it was an extra credit assignment given by my summer school teacher
i went with my dad saying the whole time we were in line to buy tickets
lets see transformers
cmon lets see license to wed
but we saw sicko
i saw sicko
it really opened my eyes to what the media does to your perception of other countries
we were told to hate the french.
why?
they are more friendly that anyone in the usa
same with cuba
america is always trying to screw us over
michael moore it an amazing person
and an amazing director
i really like the way he thinks
an example in this movie of how terrible our health care systems are was a little girl who lived in the us
and she had a fever of over 104
her mother called 911
they picked her up in an ambulence and took her to the nearest hospital
wouldnt you think that they would help this girl…to save her life
but NO! they denied to examine her because she was provided my Kaiser Permanente
and the hospital she was at was not owned by them
by the time they took her to the other hospital SHE DIED!
Now, this little girl in france had the same symptoms
and her mother called it in
the ambulence picked her up and drove her to the hospital
they took her in WITHOUT QUESTION.
and she was saved
and guess how much her mother had to pay for her stay and ambulence ride.
NOTHING!!!!
now if the us was like france our society would be a way better one
and another thing
there was a man in the us who chopped off the ends of two of his fingers
the middle finger was 60,000 dollars for it to be sown on and the ring finger was 12,000
he had to choose which finger he wanted to be put back on because he couldnt afford both..even though he had health insurance
he chose the ring finger now his finger is in a dump somewhere
And in canada a man cut off four of his fingers
and got them all sown back on for guess how much…
NOTHING.
and a woman who had had her baby got a year off and got paid for it
and the government even sent someone to help her around the house twice a week without charge.
she even did her
LAUNDRY.
where else but france can you get the government to do your laundry
the health care in the us it really terrible
i hate the us
its dispicable
i cant believe i acctually live here.