Whoa,
Last night I went and saw Michael Moore's new film Sicko. I really didn't want to go, I thought it would be a depressing expose on the pharmacuetical rape of America and how they use US citizens as cattle-like consumers of their products. I felt I had to go since I am a nautral health practitioner and my clients will want to talk about what they saw.
But it was worse.
Michale Moore just talked to people in the US about their problems getting the health care they need. People like we all know. People here on this forum. Then he interviewed Americans living in Canada, England, France all of which provide free health care to the public. All the stuff we were afraid of, long lines, poor care, doctors unfairly compensated, simply didn't exist. Doctor in these systems are given bonusses by their successes--how many people they get to quit smoking, how many people they get to lower their blood pressure. These systems cut cost by practicing preventative medicine, not by refusing service like they do here. In France, if you are sick you call the doctor and he comes to your house, dispatched like the police are here, and the arrive in a timely manner.
No one is refused service.
In the US, we set up a fund of $50 million to take care of rescue workers of 1911. The problem is that it is very difficult to get. Most people are rejected. Without going into detail on how they came to be there, several of these rescue workers went into a Cuban hospital and were treated like they would treat any other Cuban. Needless to say they got much better treatment than they did here. One woman, who because of lung damage at the crash site, has to pay for 4 $120 inhalers per month to breathe. In Cuba, she was able to get the inhalers for $.05 apiece.
I knew that the World Health Organization ranks the US #37 in the world in health care. Now I know why.
But what bothers me most, is how badly we have been duped.