Sicko & Oprah

[Steely]

Are you guys watching this Oprah with Michael Moore????
WOWOWOWOWOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :bravo:

Oprah is nailing our healthcare crisis in America in a way I have not seen to date. Finally the celebrities are speaking out about our 50million uninsured citizens, and she asks the pivotal question:

"Do we, as America, fundamentally believe that the gas station attendants children should receive the same healthcare as the children of our investment bankers? If so, what are you prepared to do it about it!"

Oh I hope this is the tip of a huge tidal wave towards better healthcare for our children.........

 

[Nancy]

I hope it's a move for better health care for everyone, not just children. For the health care specialist to make that statement at the end about writing our congressmen sounds good, but what about all the adults that are being turned down for life saving treatments.

I like Michael Moore a lot. He has a way of getting to the heart of the issue.

Nancy

 

[witzend]

I was listening to NPR (the only "talk" radio I'll listen to) yesterday and heard a story about a 12 y/o boy in MD who died from an abscessed tooth when the infection had spread to the brain. The family's medicaid had lapsed, but even so, there are less than 100 dentists in MD who will accept medicaid payments.

I don't know what the answer to this question is. I also have very little hope that two years from now we'll be talking about this. It's a hot button election year issue. The vast majority of people will be manipulated into thinking something stupid like gay marriage or other private relationships are more important than how we live the most basic part of our lives. Healthy or ill? Hungry or sated? Warm or homeless?

Harumph!

 

[Steely]

Yes, Nancy, I agree. I just finished watching it.....and I am speechless. SO many issues need to be addressed. Healthcare for all, just like we all have police coverage should be the goal - but the question of how to get there....divides us all.

Here is the link to the sicko section of her website for some excerpts and to make your voice heard:

http://www2.oprah.com/world/health/slide/20070927/health_284_101.jhtml?promocode=HP12

 

[Steely]

Oh Witz.........I hope not!!! I wish I felt like I could make more of an impact somehow! Which is why I wanted to post this!

Personally, my 600.00 health ins. payment puts me on the brink of financial hardship every month, not to mention the 20K plus I owe from all of the doctors bills that were not covered last year...........and I make "a livable" income! Something has to be done about that as well.........which is what sicko is actually about.
Losing your house to bankruptcy due to unpaid doctors bills, is the NUMBER ONE cause of homelessness in America!

Anyhoo..............just my rant for today :laugh:

 

[witzend]

I just now finished watching this show. What strikes me about what they have left out of the conversation is that the current legislation that would provide coverage for all children does very little if health care providers have a choice as to whether they will accept it or not.

What's needed is a level playing field. So long as a doctor has a choice as to whether to take Blue Cross for $90 per appointment plus all the procedures or $50 from medicare, it's moot. They'll take the $90 and figure the $50 patient is someone else's problem.

I'm sad to say that I don't have a lot of faith that this will become anything other than another shriek-fest.

 

[Nancy]

OK you are not going to believe what we pay for health coverage for our family. When they said in the program if you are not in a group you could be paying $500-$1000 a month. Well we pay $2200 a month, $26,500 a year. It goes up by at least a couple thousand every year. We raised our deductible to $2,000 per person because we were paying $36,000 a year before that. We never have any of our medical bills covered because we never reach our deductible.

Nancy

 

[Steely]

:nonono: You must be kidding me!!!!!!!!

The biggest dent we can make is to
:vote:
in 2008 for a candidate that is willing to take this issue on head on.

 

[susiestar]

Well, I am totally thankful that my husband works for the ocmpany he works for. We have excellent insurance. BUT the copays are still killing us.

The whole dentist thing amazes me. A husband of a woman I went to HS with just a year or two ago opened over 8 branches of his dental company. They ONLY treat children with medicaid in our state. That is IT!! And they are making an amazing living, paying their help better than the other dentists and doctors, and I don't hear any complaints about them. They do a better job than OUR dentist. And I like our dentist (as much as dentist-phobic me can like a dentist, LOL)

This always amazes me, because in this area, there were no dentists to take children with medicaid until he opened up his first office. Then he got a partner, and now, WOW!

I hope they can keep things in line and spread to other states.

Susie

 

[Steely]

This is an update on the big bill to increase health care coverage that Michael Moore and Oprah were talking about. It is supposed to be approved or denied soon............and this is what they were suggesting we call our Congressman about.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-09-27-congress-schip_N.htm?csp=34

 

[flutterbee]

That bill is a band-aid only. I'm so sick and tired of politicians using this issue as nothing more than a political platform, I could puke. It's a bunch of talk and no action. Our healthcare system has been in crisis for a long, long time. What has been done? Nothing. Nada. Zip.

I've looked at all the candidate's views on health care and I am not impressed by any of them. As long as our health care is left in the hands of for-profit companies we are fed to the wolves. I'm not saying Canada's medical system is the answer. Opponents are so quick to conjure up images of Canada's system when this topic comes up. It serves their purpose. Amazingly enough, Canada is not the only country with a national health program. We can learn from other's mistakes, take the good from each of them and create our own. Or have we run out of original thinkers in this country?

 

[weaselqt]

Our experience has been hell for easy child/difficult child 1 physically and for us financially for almost two years now.

My daughter was taking a very expeensive medication for almost 10 years when our insurance company decided they would no longer pay for it because they wanted an "alternative therapy". Well, I guess they FORGOT because this medication was a last choice after spending over a year in the hospital - over 10 years ago.

Her specialist was semi-retired (yes) and would only be here every two to three months and the other times was in Arizona. Guess what, this was during his time "off".

When he came back, 40 days later and easy child/difficult child 1 missed 15 days of school and could hardly walk, etc. etc. - he contacted the insurance company and told them that he would admit her and they would have to pay that bill on a daily basis so he can try "alternative therapies" that have already been tried and failed.

In the meantime - we are having to pay for several doctor's visits to other specialists to take care of rashes and other "odd" problems she never had before. Her immune system attacts her and the medication keeps it low so that she can function as normally as possible for a 17 year old.

Anyway - ever since then, her arthritis has not been able to be controlled because her body is now trying to reject the only medication and it will not help this and we spend so much time in and out of the hospital. She is now taking Remicade IV infusion - but I am sure that is costing them a pretty penny. They should have left her well enough alone.

By the way, her other doctor retired and we have a new one for about a year now and he is absolutely wonderful! Younger and has a fresh outlook for her.

 

[witzend]

I'm with WG. I don't pretend to have the answer, but I do know when someone is wheeing in my ear and telling me it's raining. But, maybe the conversation getting started may help.

 

[tinamarie1]

post deleted by tinamarie

 

[goldenguru]

I'm not gonna throw tomatoes tinamarie ... but I will support your position that for the majority of Americans without health care ... socialized medicine would be wonderful.

My daughter and her family currently have no medical care. My sister in law works full time for a construction company. His boss does not offer any type of health care. They aren't even offered the option to purchase it at a group rate. Truth is they wouldn't be able to afford it anyway.

in my opinion there is something wrong when a family works full time and has no access to minimal health care. Just plain wrong. We are the wealthiest industrial nation in the world. There has to be a better way. Trust me when I say they would embrace ANY type of medical care ... even with it's imperfections.

 

[hearts and roses]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: witzend</div><div class="ubbcode-body">The vast majority of people will be manipulated into thinking something stupid like gay marriage or other private relationships are more important than how we live the most basic part of our lives. Healthy or ill? Hungry or sated? Warm or homeless? Harumph! </div></div>

Amen Witz!

 

[scent of cedar]

An interesting and timely discussion. :

What we need to know is not how awful the current system is (it IS awful) but what happened to change what was a workable system into the albatross we all are dealing with, now.

Throwing money at it is not going to change it.

Michael Moore did us all a service by dragging the situation to our attention once again ~ but he has not exposed the root problem.

The root problem is that it is no longer the patient or even, the physician, who has power in this system. There is so much money being leaked to third and fourth and fifth parties that the true cost of medical procedures or medications is inflated beyond all reason and NO ONE can afford medical care.

Medical insurance has become more and more expensive and is covering less and less.

How did that happen?

THAT is the question we need to learn the answers to.

Passing the keys to the treasury over to the honchos who currently run the system will only get us more of the same.

Why DOES medical care cost what it does, today?

Where IS all the money going?

Why ARE hospitals short-staffing their nurses to the point that many, many nurses have simply left the field?

The questions we ask will determine the answers we receive.

But in this day and age, no one seems to want to look foolish by actually asking a question. We all seem to want to look like we understand enough about a thing to decry the current situation ~ but we don't really know enough about it to discuss it intelligently. "The government should do something" is not an answer.

In fact, "the government should do something" is the worst answer there could ever be.

What are your questions?

IS it true that socialized medicine is a better system than our current system?

Were we all better served before the HMOs came to power?

Was there ever a time when someone without insurance could access the health care system (and you know darn well that there was such a time ~ what happened)?

We have to be willing to look foolish until we learn.

Our questions will be simple, at first ~ but we will become wiser.

And eventually, we will begin making decision based on fact instead of soundbites or movies or emotion.

This is a very good topic.

Barbara

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: scent of cedar</div><div class="ubbcode-body">In fact, "the government should do something" is the worst answer there could ever be.</div></div>I agree.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">IS it true that socialized medicine is a better system than our current system?</div></div>Canadian and British board members care to comment? (I don't know if Australia has socialized medicine. Marg? New Zealand does, I'm pretty sure). I have read that long long waits for even basic procedures are the norm under socialized health care.

The joke goes that under socialized care, there is a ten-month waiting list for the maternity ward.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Were we all better served before the HMOs came to power?</div></div> HMOs are an excellent preview of the pitfalls socialized health care, in my opinion. Rationing, no choice of doctors, other people making decisions for you.

I read that "Sicko" focuses on Cuba's health care system, which is as socialized as it gets. I haven't seen the movie, and won't, but if that is true -- does anyone really believe that Cuba has better health care than the USA?

 

[witzend]

Yes, Tina I do realize that some people who want to stir up emotions in others use that word. Do you realize that we already have a "socialized" road repair crew, bridge repair crew, schools, school lunch, police department, fire department, legal system, army, navy, airforce, government?

Who do you think pays for those things? The good fairy? But they're not for profit. And what will I do when I have gone beyond my lifetime benefit, or my husband is injured and can't continue to work and supply health care? We will be homeless. Period. I will die, because my body is too broken down and frail to survive that.

Do you realize that we could successfully treat the entire nation on a level playing field for $90 billion a year? That's a third of what we spent in Iraq this year. When exactly are we getting out of Iraq, anyway? What exactly is our plan there, and how has five years of that benefitted me or made me safer?

I am so sick and tired of people who spout the "SOCIALIZED MEDICINE!" mantra like it's a disease and have no idea of what exactly it is that they are talking about. Instead of approving 3 mental health appointments, it's the only option if it's what everyone has, so everyone gets what they need.

Mind you, I'm not saying it's the right answer. I'm only saying that using buzzwords that make people think of communism and thinking that makes a difference doesn't help.

 

[witzend]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: scent of cedar</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
In fact, "the government should do something" is the worst answer there could ever be.

</div></div>

I don't know that that's true, but not in the way that some people may think I mean. The government could help by limiting the amount of profits insurance companies and health care providers can make, and the amount of money they can charge for goods and services. They do it with milk, for crying out loud, and no one ever complained about socialized milk!

Just like the government could help stop our corrupt "do nothing" government by limiting the amount of money that a candidate can spend on campaigning (leveling the playing field) and moving the date that campaigning can start up to four months (or something that's not two years) before the election. Then those idiots could actually be doing something in Congress and the senate instead of gallivanting all over the place 2/3's of the time trying to get elected.

Let's not forget, our government was designed to be "of the people, by the people, and for the people. We are the government, people! So long as we want to sit around and gripe and think that means something, we deserve just what we get - nothing. Because nothing is what we are doing about it.