Sicko

In class we watched Sicko, a documentary by Michael Moore regarding the American health system, or lack of one. They are capable of spending millions of dollars a day on keeping up the war in the east, yet they can't even, or won't, care for their people. It's truly tragic to watch and listen to the stories of the people profiled in the documentary. A mother lost her daughter because the insurance company wouldn't let her transfer hospitals when her daughter had a high fever, a wife lost her husband and her daughter was left without a father because the insurance companies said the treatments he needed were not needed. Heroes from 9/11 were not even allowed care for the illnesses that came along with breathing in the fumes and dust while helping, simply because they were volunteers and not city employees.

When Americans hear socialized health care, they are taught to think communism which is way far off. They are completely shocked that visiting hospitals and emergency rooms, surgeries, many medications and family doctors are all free services in Canada and other countries. France for example takes it much further. You are entitled to up to a year paid maternity leave and once the baby is born you get a government employee to come to the house a few hours twice a week to help with whatever needs to be done. You get many weeks of paid holidays, and even a week off for your honeymoon. Like Michael said, it's no wonder Americans are taught to hate the French, they may actually like their ways and want the same. England is also good to it's people. A good example for them is a single dispensing charge at pharmacies for any drug and any amount of it. Even Cuba has a great health system. When Michael brought the 9/11 volunteers there, they were openly greeted and were given the tests and treatments that they were denied in the States and got their normally 100$ medications for the equivalent of about 5 cents American. When they went to Cuba, their original stop was to Guantanamo Bay prison where high security prisoners, such as Al Quaeda terrorists are being held. Amazingly, they are receiving frequent checkups from doctors, are being given the medications they need, are having preventative tests done and are getting necessary surgeries all done for FREE in the onsite hospital. Does that sound fair to you? And to top it off, they have video games in their rooms and countless other luxuries. Some prison eh? They're living better in prison than they would be at home.

It's good to see that progress was trying to be made by Hilary Clinton who wanted to make government run health care, but of course the money hungry politicians made sure that she was beaten out. It's tragic to think of how many people are denied health care and unfortunately die because of it. It's also tragic to think of the people in the claims office knowing that they have to deny these patients, knowing that that is the likely outcome. It is not their decision, they are simply the messengers making a living and it's sad. The big shots that own the place are upstairs sitting in their Armani suits puffing on some Cubans as people are at home suffering.

The issue is that all of these countries that have government run health care have the mindset of helping those around you, because they would do the same for you. In the US, it is a very capitalist society and people are greedy, not wanting to pay extra taxes. Why should they if it isn't directly benefiting themselves right? They don't realize that paying those few extra tax dollars now will help them down the line to pay for that $100,000 surgery if they get hit by a bus. But it's not their faults. The government has taught them to think this way. If they were to give healthcare, the taxes would skyrocket like in Canada or France. They're made to think that we struggle to get by because our taxes are so high, which is not the case. Yeah, our taxes are quite high, but still not as high as some countries. Look at all of the services we have though, health care, schools, daycares, postal service. These services aren't free. We pay for them, but we all benefit. The higher the taxes, the more services are provided, making life easier for us all. What more can you ask for?