SiCKO

I almost didn't see this film, figuring that I was pretty familiar with the topic. But I'm very glad I did - Michael Moore did a great job of highlighting some important issues, and using a lighter touch than some of his earlier movies had. You can quibble about facts and figures and exaggerations (especially since Michael Moore is the ONLY one out there presenting information in a particular way to make a point). But after a tour of other countries' health systems (Canada, England, France), and seeing how poorly served many Americans are by our current system, you can't deny that there is clearly a better way. And my question is the same as his: why are we satisfied with this? Why do we buy these hysterical arguments about how catastrophic it would be to have a single payer system? The assertions make no sense - that our healthcare will be rationed, that someone else will make the decisions. These things are already happening, but instead of a benign government system doing the deciding, you have profit-driven corporations who don't hide that their goal is to make money INSTEAD OF serving patients. When you consider how many people have no healthcare coverage at all, and then add in the many people who end up with huge bills that they did not expect to pay (because their coverage is limited or their policies are cancelled), and THEN consider the IMMENSE amount of money that we all pay for this flawed and patchwork system, you really can't help wondering why we're tolerating it. I saw a comment on the ideas in the movie, saying in essence, why should I pay for others? That's part of the absurdity of it all - if you have coverage, you already ARE paying for others - the cost of the uninsured is passed along to each of us in various ways. It seems so unsophisticated to continue to believe that covering everyone in a sane and systematic way will somehow cost more than the insanity we have now. If there are problems with the British or Canadian systems, they can be addressed when we design our own - we can learn from their mistakes and create something better. But to continue along the current path, where we pay a fortune with poor outcomes, is really beyond comprehension.