Just finished seeing Michael Moore's SiCKO

by Jourles 82 Replies latest social entertainment

Stephanus

Labor voters talk about what's best for the country. What is fair for everyone. Liberal voters talk about their job, their morgage.
Have you even met a Liberal voter?
sass_my_frass

You who live in the other above mentioned countries do not realize how well off you are in terms of medical care compared to us in the USA.
No, we really do know.
brinjen

How does getting people who can afford it to take up private insurance, thus taking the pressure of the public system, bad?
Why is there so much pressure on the public system in the first place? We pay taxes to pay for the health system. Cigarettes have a tax on them thats supposed to go to the health system. As shown in the US, private health insurance companies run to make a profit. Too many people turned away because their treatment is not economic in my opinion.
As for the hero Mark Latham, wasn't he the guy who broke taxi-drivers' arms and journalists' cameras?
Never said he was my hero, yes he has a screw loose. He still had some valid points though.
And how is protecting patents on inventions a bad thing?
Its not the patent itself, but the way it allows companies to charge whatever they want.
Have you even met a Liberal voter?
I know plenty. Not saying they all talk that way, the ones I know do.
My take on it is that you need a good balance between right-wing and left-wing ideas. A bird needs two wings to fly straight. There's some good ideas on both sides, but if one side or the other takes over then a nation will veer off course.
My thoughts exactly Gopher!
Warlock

My dad had to have a pace-maker put in last week....everything went fine.
First of all, I'm glad that everything went well.
Second of all......................
I decided to cool off a bit before I call his insurance company......
Next time, don't wait. They deserve to hear from you in your state of anger for being cheap assholes.
Warlock
G Money

US Healthcare is very expensive. Things are much cheaper in Mexico. Medicine is much less. There are so many people whose poor health is due to their lifestyle choices. It wouldn't be fair to make healthy people who make proper choices pay for those who are careless or lazy with their lives. Perhaps a two tiered system. Heavy drinkers, smokers and obese people in one group and others who are height and weight proportionate and don't smoke, do drugs or drink heavy in another. Many Americans who need procedures should explore the options of getting it done in another country. Why not take a vacation and get work done cheaper. In Mexico there is socialized medicine of sorts (IMSS) you pay for but I always pay for better doctors and dentists. For those near border towns, go and take advantage. Farmacias similares has doctor visits for less than US$2.00. Its subsidized by them so that way when you see their doctor on premesis you can get your prescription filled fast. Doctor gave me full checkup for my cold last year. Sure I could have gone to government doctor (IMSS) but I spent the extra $2. Dental procedures are also less. I knew a girl who needed a root canal done in the US. Got quoted $2,500. Same thing done in Mexico for $500. At $500 she overpaid but she went to a border area where prices are higher.
katiekitten

Jourles as riveting as your review of the film is, I just have to say...
Is that YOU in the photo nexto MM???
FlyingHighNow

FHN,
Just his Rx's alone are hundreds per month.
In the fim, there was a 9/11 rescue worker who didn't have insurance. In another scene, it showed the NYC mayor going over all of the caveats regarding health care for 9/11 workers. Basically, in order for them to receive health benefits, it seems they almost had to live onsite, have it notarized, and not have any pre-existing conditions that might be similar to 9/11 Ground Zero attributed health problems(he rattled off a long list). This one rescuer's inhaler prescription costs $125 per refill - and she needs this twice a month. When she went to Cuba, the same inhaler cost her only 3.5 pesos($.05 US). It must be nice to have government subsidies help pay for medical costs.
What we have in this country is unbrideled greed. Used to be there were a small wealthy elite in most societies and then a majority of very poor underclass. It would seem there are still very powerful people who'd like to go back to that, with no middle class. Why is it they cannot enjoy their wealth unless the rest of the us are unable to afford health care, food, gasoline, decent housing, even something as simple as taking your family to the movies is obscene. I just checked the prices for movie tickets. I thought I'd take my grandson Julian to a matinee, to cheer us up over the loss of the other grandson. The tickets at $5.75 for a matinee and there is no kids' ticket price any more. $12 just for tickets. Can you imagine how much it would cost to take a family of four to the movies and buy their candy, popcorn and drinks? It's cost prohibitive for most families anymore. It's going to get to where only the wealthy can afford such things.
SWALKER

Next time, don't wait. They deserve to hear from you in your state of anger for being cheap assholes.
cheap a$$h@les is an apt description!!! I have a friend in Mx that sends me meds occasionally if I
need them...I am going to get a few bp meds to have around just in case we face this in the future. Also, I just found out that I have to visit my pain specialist every 2 months now, thanks to the Anna Nicole episode! Why should all Americans have to pay for her doctor's medical violations? Who makes this stuff up?????????
Swalker
sammielee24

By now I suppose you have all heard the 911 calls on the news...I saw the reported interviewed and this story was kept under wraps and it isn't the first death of this kind. Very, very sad. This was from the Mercury or Kansas news center. sw.
<<<<Edith Isabel Rodriguez, 43, died of a perforated bowel on May 9 at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital. Her death was ruled accidental by the Los Angeles County coroner's office.
Relatives said she was bleeding from the mouth and writhing in pain for 45 minutes. Experts have said Rodriguez could have survived had she been treated early enough. The head of the county's Department of Health Services, which oversees the facility, has called her death "inexcusable."
"I'm more than angry. I'm shocked not thinking that a hospital can actually do this to a person," said the victim's sister, Columba Avena.
"They treated her like she was a nobody just like an animal and waiting there to die," said brother Javier Sanchez.
County officials said Rodriguez's last minutes were caught on tape by a hospital security camera, but officials are refusing to release that video.
"A dozen people were in the room and nobody got up to help. The janitors came over to help clean the vomit of the victim. They did a diligent job cleaning up the vomit, but they didn't take one look at her. It's a complete moral human breakdown that I cannot understand," said L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times' Web site posted audio from two 911 calls that were released by the county Sheriff's Department under the newspaper's California Public Records Act request.
In them, callers pleaded for help but were referred to hospital staff instead.
A call to a sheriff's spokesman seeking comment was not immediately returned Tuesday.
Rodriguez's boyfriend, Jose Prado, used a pay phone outside the hospital to call 911 at 1:43 a.m.
"I'm in the emergency room. My wife is dying and the nurses don't want to help her out," he said in Spanish through an interpreter.
"What's wrong with her?" a dispatcher asked.
"She's vomiting blood," Prado said.
"OK, and why aren't they helping her?" the dispatcher asked.
"They're watching her there and they're not doing anything. They're just watching her," Prado said.
The dispatcher told the man to contact a doctor and then said paramedics wouldn't pick up his wife because she already was in a hospital. Later, she told Prado to contact county police officers at a security desk.
A second 911 call was placed eight minutes later by a woman bystander who requested that an ambulance be sent to take Rodriguez to some other hospital for care.
"She's definitely sick and there's a guy that's ignoring her," the woman told a different dispatcher.
During the brief call, the dispatcher argued with the woman over whether there really was an emergency.
"I cannot do anything for you for the quality of the hospital. ... It is not an emergency. It is not an emergency ma'am," he said.
"You're not here to see how they're treating her," the woman replied.
The dispatcher refused to call paramedics and told the woman that she should contact hospital supervisors "and let them know" if she is unhappy.
"May God strike you too for acting the way you just acted," the woman said finally.
"No, negative ma'am, you're the one," he said.
The chief medical officer at the hospital has been replaced as part of the investigation.
The reported ouster of Dr. Roger Peeks comes as the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors grapples with recent federal findings that the hospital continues to endanger patients, raising the possibility that it may have to close down.
The ouster follows a finding last week by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that determined emergency room patients had been placed in "immediate jeopardy" of harm or death.
Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital was formerly known as Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center. The name was changed as part of a reorganization after years of problems including patient deaths blamed on sloppy nursing care and hospital mismanagement that has threatened its federal funding.
The ousted chief medical officer Peeks, brought in three years ago to help overhaul medical operations at the long-troubled facility, was placed on "ordered absence" Tuesday, but health officials decline to elaborate on the action, calling it a confidential personnel matter, the Los Angeles Times reported.
County officials named Dr. Robert Splawn, chief medical officer for the health department, as interim chief medical officer at King-Harbor, according to The Times.
County supervisors Wednesday bluntly discussed preparations for a possible closure of the public facility in Willowbrook.
They directed health officials to return in one week with an update on all the state and federal inspections the hospital has undergone. County supervisors also want health officials to submit a report on what will happen if federal regulators shut down the hospital.
Last week, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services determined emergency room patients had been placed in "immediate jeopardy" of harm or death.
That finding was made following an LA Weekly story that detailed how Juan Ponce, a man with a brain tumor, waited four days in MLK-Harbor's emergency room when he needed to be transferred to another hospital for life- saving brain surgery.
CMS also separately determined the hospital violated the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act in the case of ER patient Rodriguez.
Once county health officials receive an official letter from CMS administrators, which is expected this week, they will have 23 days to fix problems at the hospital or risk losing federal reimbursements. Federal inspectors are expected to make their follow-up visit in mid-
Jourles

It wouldn't be fair to make healthy people who make proper choices pay for those who are careless or lazy with their lives. Perhaps a two tiered system. Heavy drinkers, smokers and obese people in one group and others who are height and weight proportionate and don't smoke, do drugs or drink heavy in another.
I'm curious to know how other countries deal with issues like these. Let's say in Great Britain you are a smoker. Does your health care differ from a non-smoker? In the film, MM interviewed an NHS? doctor in GB. The doctor said that he gets paid more(similar to a bonus) to prevent diseases, to get people to stop smoking, etc. In a nutshell, if he treats a patient right the first time, he gets paid more(I think that's how he worded it). Many people knock other countries health care systems by saying that gov't paid doctors do not make as much so that would mean their performance would be poorer. Granted, I don't know how many doctors may fit into this description, but this dr from GB was making around 100k pounds a year plus those bonuses for getting people to live healthier lives(I think they figured he made close to $200k US per year). His family lived in a 1 million dollar flat and he drove a new Audi. I'd say he was doing just fine.
In another scene(from GB), prescription drugs only cost around 6.45 pounds?(bad memory, might have been 8 pounds) And it didn't matter what type of drug it was for. And the only group of people that have to pay for it are regular working class folk. Children up to age 16-18?? and seniors over 60 do not have to pay.(someone can correct my ages if I'm wrong)
The government controls many of our utilities. We need gas, water, electricity, etc. I'm not against certain companies trying to make a profit to continue their R&D. The main problem we have in this country is when these companies have to report to its shareholders. A company goes public for one thing - to make money for itself and for those who invest in it. I'm sorry, but health care and pharma should not ever be about the money -- or making more of it.
Katie -- Yes, that is me next to MM.

Just finished seeing Michael Moore's SiCKO

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