Comment by Kilo — July 23, 2007 @ 10:18 am

What Does the Healthcare system have to do what people put in their mouths? Does your doctor need to tell you that Snack foods should not replace meals? I would hope not! Not everying is related to a pay-per-use health care system.
Comment by FuzzyMonkey — July 23, 2007 @ 2:58 pm

That’s what I was saying. Bit of sarcasm.

I’d a lot rather have to wait for a surgery that can and will save my life, than have someone arbitrarily tell me I won’t get it at all because either it’s “experimental” or “not medically necessary” or some similar bunch of garbage.

Comment by Jim in Durham — July 23, 2007 @ 6:10 pm

The difference being you’re the one guy with that one health insurer getting knocked back on that one treatment.
As opposed to everyone who needs a hospital bed who can’t get one for any reason.
You think the former situation is preferable do you.

2nd story just from those I work with – our finance manager who did get into our local hospital with a collapsed lung. Got kicked out 1 day afterwardsbecause they needed the beds and as a result went down with the same thing about 4 days later.

I do not find it surprising that he’s running ads and carrying the water for the big health care companies or any other major corporate enterprises and can not understand why anybody takes this buffoon seriously.

You’re calling the biggest problem with public health care that plagues every system worldwide — the wait list for surgery — as a smear.

I’d a lot rather have to wait for a surgery that can and will save my life, than have someone arbitrarily tell me I won’t get it at all because either it’s “experimental” or “not medically necessary” or some similar bunch of garbage.

I don’t mind waiting to see a doctor. For those who have no insurance, even that opportunity is a blessing.

Comment by Kilo — July 23, 2007 @ 10:18 am

What Does the Healthcare system have to do what people put in their mouths? Does your doctor need to tell you that Snack foods should not replace meals? I would hope not! Not everying is related to a pay-per-use health care system.
I would not blame the heath care system for this. People are lazy! Even if you look back 9 years ago in this nation people were not this fat. Everybody has to have riding lawn mowers, fast food, and desk jobs. We are a nation of convenience, and this is the result. If you look: http://www.doctorslounge.com/primary/articles/obesity_death/ back in 2004 being overweight was becoming the leading cause of death.

Although I address this comment to you, if is not for you, but rather about you. You represent a sample of the typical american [hereafter the sheeple].I do not expect an erudite response from either of you nor do I desire one. Your track record is such that you will have nothing to add beyond what you have already [hereafter know as nothing]

I grew up in Canada and England and have lived and worked in France, Costa Rica, and Venezuela. I currently live in the USA [heretofore known as the land of my wife- a doctor].

From experience I can tell you that all systems have their good and bad points. In my experience I can tell you that French GP’s like suppositories more than US docs. Of course, medical research backs them up the French on this.

However I have experienced longer waits and much less co-ordinated care here than anywhere else. I am currently waiting for a surgical consult for potential surgury cue to an acute spinal injury after a car accident. My wait time is 2 months. As a result I have called my old family doc in Canada [whom I have not seen for about 20 years] and he has an appointment for me next week with a top neurosurgicy doc. I have not lived in Canada for almost 20 years and have not paid taxes. But I am a citizen so I am covered. I will not even have to pay a deductible.

I know your response will be that I don’t have insurance or that I chose inferior insurance and thus have what is coming to me. This is not true. When I tell my friends and neighbors about my coverage [I was curious how it stacked up so I asked] they tell me that my coverage is “cadilac” which means, I beleive, that I have much better than average coverage.

My wife is furious and is inquiring with practices in Canada, England and France to join them. She has had enough of the system. As a patriot and fan or Jeffersonian philosophy, I have encouraged her to stay, but still we look. In America, on average, she gets paid 30 – 50% of her charges [this is typical by the way] for service. And the wait time for payment, assuming that there are no inquiries or denials, is anywhere from 6 months to 1.5 years. Think of your jobs for a moment and decide if you would live with recieving 30 – 50% of your pay after that kind of delay. Your doctor does.

In the meantime she pays rent, advertising, and salaries and benefits for employees. Do you not see a problem with this? More Docs are either moving out of the country or specializing in more arcane specializations. Does it not occur to you that the reason that house calls still happen in other countries is because they have GP’s and we don’t have enough to go around. many rural areas in the US have no access to any care. The same is true for [inner] cities.

And for this we pay more per person than any other country for much worse outcomes. Does not the conservative in you find this inefficient? Or is greed the only virtue you worship? I must assume you are an insurance executive or in their employ somehow [perhaps professional trolls?]. If not then I must say that your proctologist just called and wants me to tell you that he found your heads.

The medical system here is bloated with inefficiencies at the administrative level and there are no incentives to change.

Americans are good at fixing things but are slow to react to problems. I suggest you get started. It is already costing the country billions in direct costs and trillions in indirect costs. That is the argument for conservatives, and now the liberal- it is costing lives.

And so dear K-dudes, I urge you to open your minds and dust off your hearts. Stop being concerned with the trivial and look at the big picture. America, this great country and her people, suffer, and they do not have to.

So, if you are an American having HMO, the wait is about the same or worse than any wait in Canada or Europe, which practice universal health care.

It’s now should be obvious to the American public that the American people have been shafted by the Mafia in the insurance industry. They’ve been ‘programmed’ to accept the rip-off deal dumped on them for years. The American politicians are too corrupt to do any thing good about the broken health care system.

It’s time the people take the matter in their hands and stop trusting the politicians to do any thing in their interests. It’s obvious that those politicians are doing their best to serve their masters in the health care industry at the expense of the American people’s health, safety, and survival.

I also spent 2 hours sitting in the ER bleeding from my leg after I got a 3 inch gash that was showing bone. Nobody even gave me a bandage I had a paper towel that I brought from my house by the time I got my stiches the paper towel was drenched with blood.

I have full health insurance coverage and my parents combined income is somewhere around 250k a year but our local hospital is crap it has the worst reputation ever anyone in our area avoids going there if at all possible.

our Health care system does need work but I am more concerned as to why Americans are the most sickly of industrialized nations. Health care isn’t the problem. Diabetes is rampant in our nation so is cancer, autism etc. Something is making people in our nation sick. Michael Moore should do a documentary on the root cause of illness in our nation, the food supply. Obesity is skyrocketing, America has the most overweight people of any nation on earth. I hope that someday Michael Moore does an indepth examination of our food supply..The food industry is making us all fat!!!!!

Comment by sweetsunshine — July 23, 2007 @ 7:47 am

See there you go undermining the message.
The rampant obesity and diabetes are just coincidences. The life expectancy statistics aren’t related to lifestyles, it’s the health care system that’s to blame.

Sources? Citations? I thought not. See this page for Moore’s sources.

Type “hospitals” and “beds” into a news archive search. Or try “doctors” and “chronic shortage”. There is no month or year you won’t find a result from.

Our admin manager at work has her grandmother in hospital with respiratory problems.
She has to travel 120km / 100miles to visit her at a hospital. Not the local hospital, not one at the 2 larger cities on the way, not the larger regional hospital which is closer in the other direction, but in a suburb of Sydney.

This is because they had the only available intensive care bed available for her in the whole state.

This is why she had to wait hours at the local that couldn’t treat her then take a helicopter ride that otherwise wouldn’t have been necessary.
1 intensive care bed available in Sydney. For the state.
Figure out whether theres a problem there can ya ?

Of course you can. Everyone can. It’s just admitting it is the hard part.

There are other reasons one might argue against a single payer system. Ignorance of the benefits of a universal health care model and fear of change are examples.
Comment by Scalesian — July 22, 2007 @ 8:54 am

Yeah whatever pal. Go join everyone else who’s to scared to address any of the inherent drawbacks of universal health care while talking about fear.
Ya look credible. You really do.

Thank you for your comment. I’m sorry about your knee, but I wish that more people here in the U.S. would listen to stories such as yours, and not be so dismissive when someone like Michael Moore points out the discrepancies between our healthcare system and that of other civilized countries. Not to mention, on top of all of the great things that Germany has to offer, such as free university, Germany is way ahead of the U.S. regarding recognizing and taking steps to combat global warming.