It is my hope that this movie, which is as Cathy says MORE A FORM OF POLITICAL PROTEST than a documentary, will one day be seen as the watershed moment that finally galvanized Americans to action on this critical issue..
I have not seen the movie, and don't feel a need to. First of all, anyone who has spent anytime at all negotiating our health care system knows it to be a nightmare at best and death at it's worst. To say that America's health care system is broken and needs fixing is simply a statement of the obvious. Doug and Cathy have talked about this, and I will be posting soon about my own adventures down the yellow brick PPO road. We'll take whatever catalyst we can get to make the system better.
Secondly, having spent a day or twelve working around the old economic model, I find it preposterous that doing away with all profit motive will improve health care in this country. Especially when message comes from someone, Mr. Moore, making millions off the message itself. What the...? Somebody call Ripley's, cause this stuff can't be real.
Finally, what model does Mr. Moore offer as the solution to our medical woes? Cuba. Cuba? CUBA! You don't have free speech, but you do get free health care. However, if two or more of you gather in the doctor's office you could be arrested for subversion. How do we even know if Cuba's health care system is worth a damn. I don't watch a lot of TV, but to my knowledge folks are casting aside trips for consultations at the Mayo Clinic, or John Hopkins in order to find out what the folks in Havana think. Medical students aren't taking rafts from Miami hoping to get a better medical education from Fidel.
In America someone who rails against the inadequacies and inequities of the health care system is called a consumer advocate. In Cuba they are called prisoner #47625.
6 comments:
Mike uses CUBA because it is
the stick in the eye that will make
the right come out and see his movie.
Mike also has little to no cred and is worried about going face to face with a qualified critic.
UP side is the movie didn't do well and after this weekend it will be toast at the box office. Downside is Mike will be working the news networks for months hawking his
wonderful work!
You are missing the point; what he's saying is that even in a place as screwed up and poor and repressed as CUBA, people can get medical care. His point is, if a place as undesirable as Cuba can do this for people, certainly the U.S. can do it - and do it much better.
Katie one point would be
that socialist or even comunist countries like Cuba always provide free health care.
Another is the USA has the bet health care in the word but it is also the highest in cost.
Looks like the key here is to provide assistance to pay that cost for those who can't afford insurance?
Anonymous,
The role of government is to assure essential services and to protect its citizens. The benefit of private health care has exceeded its cost. What good does it serve if quality health care is beyond the range of most Americans? The rich have always received the best medical assistance, because they can afford to go where the best medicine is practiced. Is it socialistic to have public servants (i.e. Police, Firemen, Servicemen, or NASA employee)? No one is advocating that doctors should not earn a great wage, but government could help reduce the business risk for providing medical services to the American population.
A Tax Accountant,
The rich have always received the best medical assistance, because they can afford to go where the best medicine is practiced"
In the past this was true but today the statement needs to include "those with the best medical coverage can afford to go where the best medicine is practiced.
If your union has fought management to the point where you are provided full coverage while working and after you leave your job then you have no cost issue. If your union has also won for you AND your family the same coverage before and after you work then health care costs are not an issue.
There ARE ways to bring the cost of health care back in line and to keep the government out of our hospital rooms. One would be to
re-think the malpractice insurance issue. Doctors are now forced to pass the high cost of the insurance on to us due to a new breed of lawyers who live to litigate against both hospitals and individuals in the medical field.
Provide FREE malpractice insurance or at the very least assistance in buying it along with tighter laws on medical litigation and we would see the cost of health care drop.
Also if Walmart can sell needed
drugs for $4.00 why can't the rest of the drugstores? Drug costs are
out of hand and capping the drug companies profit margins could drag them back into line.
Mike using Cuba is what put his movie on the map, but due to low attendance and a knee jerk reaction to his persona middle and southern America will just write it off as another shot at their country
The movie grossed more per screen than Live Free or Die Hard which opened the same weekend. Hardly a failure.
Of course, Bruce Willis opened on about eight times more screens, but still.
"Another is the USA has the [best] health care in the word but it is also the highest in cost."
Actuall, I think we're ranked somewhere around 37th by the WHO. But you're right about the cost.
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