Michael Moore's "Sicko"

OR: How I learn to stop worriying and swallow the pill.

Published on June 22, 2007 By JustSimplyBob In US Domestic

Now this might be a pill hard for me even to swallow. (no pun intended, ok some)

I'll tell you the truth.
1: I do not like Micheal Moore. He is a nut job and his previous movies are way out there.
2: I have read lots of write ups on his previous movies and do not seem very good to me.
3: I think he has finally might have made a well thought out movie that I am really considering seeing.
4: I am not feeling sick or unwell... I think.

Despite all his eccentricities, Micheal Moore has really brought up a damn fine point with "Sicko". I have personally for years saying the same thing. Health care should be run by the government. The effect the system will have on us as a country would be unlike any other.

Let's start Crime. How does crime and health care have in common? Allot.

"According to data collected by the U.S. Department of Justice, in mid-2005 there were 2,186,230 prisoners in local jails and state and federal prisons in the United States. Estimates of the percentage of prisoners who have severe psychiatric disorders have ranged from 7 percent to 16 percent; the latter figure comes from a widely cited but methodologically questionable federal study. The best studies suggest that approximately 10 percent of prisoners have severe psychiatric disorders. Thus, approximately 218,000 individuals with severe psychiatric disorders are incarcerated in the nations jails and prisons at any given time. This number is equivalent to the population of such cities as Akron, Ohio; Madison, Wisconsin; Montgomery, Alabama; Richmond, Virginia; or Tacoma, Washington." {1}.

That there is only figures for severe psychiatric disorders. It is bad enough that we find out these individuals have a mental illness after they have done something to land them in a place like that. If we had a state sponsored health care system, signs could be caught sooner (either by self-referral or through 3rd person observations, ie school, work, etc).

Drug/alcohol addiction cases could be taken care a whole lot better also. I occasionally partake in some alcohol consumption, I do not let it consume me. Some people that is not the case. Especially cases of drug addiction, addiction problems could be handled before the user is so consumed the road to overcoming the addiction is too long to overcome.

That is two ways a federal health care system could possibly help reduce crime.

What sets people back from going to a doctor about most problems until they become really bad is the cost of health care. Lets look at why the cost of health car is so high. Malpractice insurance/malpractice cases.

I find it is unfair to sue someone who is trying to help you. Grant it, if they were malicious about it, that would be a different story. Everyone expect doctors to know all the answers. Let's face it. The human body/mind is very complex. Fixing the human body is not like fixing a car. We know how a car works, we designed it. Evolution designed us, therefore we must figure it out. Doctors to a degree guess what the problem is. Now the schools they go through, the training they go through, and their peers help them make very educated guesses. If you boil it down, it is still guessing.

Now if health care was federalized, we would be suing the government because of malpractice. I know we can sue the government. It is not the government's fault that the doctor guessed wrong.

Now the problem lies with malpractice/what to do if a doctor kills somebody/severely injures them. what to do? I unfortunately do not have that answer. I can however give ideas.

We could fire the doctor. We could reprimand the doctor. We could have the doctors confer with other doctors before execution of treatment. I do not want to try and go case by case basis. That would take up entirely too much time. It is an issue though that needs to be addressed before a federalized health care system can be placed into reality.

Now would we have to pay more in taxes? Perhaps, but also look at it like this. You would be making more money. Some companies do pay for full coverage or they pay some and you pay the remainder. That would be an expense the company would not have (nor you). Companies could pay you more because they have less expenses like that or they could reduce the costs of their product to the consumer. I see it as a win-win situation.

That leaves us at one last problem. The transition. How do we go from what we have now, to the new system. I can see how an overnight transformation is out of the question. Maybe a volunteer system, where if you want state sponsored health care you can do it. Wait, we do have that. Medicaid! Baby steps now. Maybe we can beef up Medicaid to compete with private insurance. Or maybe the government can buyout/merge the insurance companies.

Now even after I made these points, I still think it is a good idea. I did not say it was going to be easy or that there was not going to be any bugs. I think it is doable. Now to quote JFK, "We choose to do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard."

{1} http://www.psychlaws.org/GeneralResources/Fact3.htm http://health.usnews.com/usnews/health/articles/070621/21health.moore.htm http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-movie22jun22,0,5962985.story?coll=la-home-center

Comments

greywar

on Jun 22, 2007

As another person who has lived in the comfy grasp of government run health care for all of my adult life I second LW's opinion. Even in the military system where no money changes hands for active duty folks the standard of care is awful, the time to get an appointment is ludicrous, and the errors by disinterested government unfireable emplopyees are rampant. Maybe the Navy did it better for you but the Army and the VA are awful with it.

As a civlian usin the Government as my insurance provider things are mildly better but time to get an appointment is still huge and to get an appointment at all I have to make an appointment with an appointment maker first!

The government is terrible at runnign most things and health care is far far from being an exception.

Gideon MacLeish

on Jun 22, 2007

I absolutely disagree with you 100%. I do not think the government does ANYTHING more efficiently than the private sector.

HOWEVER,

I do want to comment on the quality of the article itself. It's logical, well presented and you have a good writing style. I think I could actually enjoy disagreeing with you.

Welcome to JU and do't be a stranger. I'd like to see more work like this!

cactoblasta

on Jun 22, 2007

As someone who comes from a country where a government job is not a job for life I can see why you might find it scary. But really all you need to do is shake up the public servants. No greater blow was struck for public service efficiency in my country than when it was gutted by the Howard government (one of the few acts it's performed that I wholeheartedly agreed with).

Granted, they probably cut a bit too much off, but over the last ten years the quality of both federal gov employees and federal gov services has improved out of sight.

When a government department is run as ruthlessly as a corporation it can be a success. You just need to get the right people into the top jobs with the right incentives to take the necessary measures to improve efficiency.

EDIT: On the original article: Socialised healthcare can work, but it needs an interested and informed citizenry to work. I'm not sure Anglicised cultures are capable of that. We're too individualistic.

JustSimplyBob

on Jun 23, 2007

Then how about we make it easier to fire a government employee. Especially for gross incompetence. One of my roommates works for the tax department and he was telling me about how they had a woman who was late all the time and did not know her job. It took them like 6 years to get rid of her. He said eve time they would try and reprimand her or file a complaint or even start the process of firing her, she would bring in the race card every time. I think maybe we should run our government like an aggressive corporation. Now I am not talking about hostile takeovers of other governments (but that might be entertaining to see) We need to challenge some of these government works to do a better job or they will be finding a new job.

Granted it would not be as well paying as working at DMV, but they can flip burgers if they do not care about their job. Or maybe we should make all government jobs like the military (sorta). Where if you do not do you job, we make you work harder and at less pay. Screw up enough times. Dishonorable discharge. good luck finding a job after that. lol.

I bet that is why alot of government employees do not do a good job. They know that no matter how bad a job they do, they would never be fired.I tell you, they need that fear of being fired. That is why every job I have worked at, I try and do my best, because I do not want to find another job.

Draginol

on Jun 23, 2007

Well written article.

But I totally don't agree with it.

Any time you have a monopoly on a service (whether it be public or private) you end up with poor quality and poor service.

Look at public schools which are incredibly inefficient and overall do a pretty poor job educating children given the money provided. Look at how incompotently social security and medicare is handled and those are considered success stories by the left.

Can one imagine the same people who came up wit the DMV running healthcare? No thanks.

I don't really see what's wrong with our healthcare system as-is. Sure, there are 40 million or so people who are uninsured but the vast majority of those people are either choosing not to have insurance or are illegal aliens.

People aren't forced to have healthcare insurance so obviously you're going to have 10% to 15% of the population who choose not to use it.

The fact is, most people are insured and can get quick and relatively efficient healthcare today. One has to wonder about the motives of those who want to make something that already works pretty decently be suddenly run by the government.

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