HW 25 Michael Moore film, Sicko
1. Michael Moore’s opinion of health care in the U.S.:
The U.S.health care system is a disaster because it operates to make a
profit instead of to save lives. The 50 million people who don’t have
health care are screwed but so are the people who have it because
insurance companies charge them a fortune and find ways
not to pay for their health care. This country is the only western
democracy without universal health care. Doctors in England live well
without making a fortune like U.S. doctors, and their drugs are 500% cheaper.
Insurance, drug, and health care companies make billions here, but Americans
Are dying from lack of care including 9/11 heroes, while terrorists get
great treatment at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba.
2. Evidence
a. First example - Michael Moore has as insurance employee tell him that his job is to process claims of insured people not to pay for their health care but to find loopholes so the company can refuse to pay.
Second example - When Moore goes to a Canadian hospital and asks people where they pay, they just laugh at him, and he finds out that hospital cashier only pays out money to people who need it for their transportation home.
b. The first example supports his argument that having for profit insurance companies decide whether or not to pay for people’s health care and have the power to make them go broke paying for their surgery when they have paid for their insurance is a disastrous health care system. The second example shows a caring health care system where people can
go to a hospital to try to get well without having to worry if they can
afford their operation.
c. Here is what an insurance company representative has to say about insurance companies finding ways not to pay in Sicko:
IGNAGNI: In every doctor's office, in every hospital, in every health plan, yes, it's true, in all of those situations. No margin, no mission. If you're not in the black, then you can't do your job. The individuals that we cover, 250 million of them, expect to have their health care coverage. We saw eight to 10 stories featured in the film, and, in fact, there was no attempt to get the other side of the story. And I know for a fact, because many of these cases are eight to 10 to 15 years old, there is another side of the story. In many of these cases featured in the film, it was simply a case where the health plan was interpreting, was this coverage purchased by the employer? Now, we can have a debate about whether employers purchase enough coverage. Not only is this insurance person not denying that there are people whose job it is to find ways not to pay claims, this person is also saying that the problem is that employers need to buy more insurance. I think that this shows Moore is right about saying that insurance companies should not have anything to do with health care. They are only in it for the money.
This fact check from Sicko shows how insurance companies try to cheat with false claims:
Blue Cross/Blue Shield: "Sixty-seven Blue Cross/Blue Shield companies across the nation have paid the United States a total of $117 million to settle government claims that Medicare made primary payments for health care services that should have been paid by the Blue Cross/Blue Shield private insurance companies, the Department of Justice announced today." "Blue Cross/Blue Shield Companies Settle Medicare Claims, Pay United States $117 Million, Agree To Share Information," Department of Justice News Release, October 25, 1995. http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/Pre_96/October95/551.txt.html
Example of direct confrontation – Moore talking to Blitzer (CNN)
Moore: You said that Germany was the only one that was better than us in terms of wait times. The Commonwealth Fund last year showed of the top six countries, we were second to last, next to Canada. It showed that Britain, for instance, 71 percent of the British public, when they call to see a doctor, get to see the doctor that day or the next day. It's 69 percent in Germany. It's 66% in Australia. And you're the ones who are fudging the facts. You fudged the facts to the American people now for I don't know how long about this issue, about the war.
d.Fact check:
L.A Times: March 28, 2006
Former Members Sue Blue Cross
The state's largest health insurer systematically -- and illegally -- cancels coverage retroactively for people who need expensive care, 10 former Blue Cross members claimed in lawsuits filed Monday.
Read more: http://newsbusters.org/node/13866#ixzz18ndVVeLd
I think Sicko was an important movie to make. People talk all the time
about what a terrible health care system we have, and I have seen the bad
side of it myself. Right now my family’s health insurance is temporarily
not available because a doctor my brother saw after a sports injury overcharged
our insurance company by $15. I found this out when I went to play in a
soccer tournament, and we had to have insurance. The doctor has to pay it
back for us to have insurance coverage even though we pay $1,000 a month for health
insurance. I think the dramatic trip to the U.S. navy base at Guantonomo in Cuba with the three guys who had helped on 9/11 and couldn’t get health insurance was great. Not only does Michael Moore get to show that the suspected terrorists involved in 9/11 can get health care paid by the U.S. and the people who risked their lives to save World Trade Center people could not, but he also gets to show that a universal care system like the one in Cuba will help everyone. Once when I was in France, I had a bad fever. A doctor drove three hours on a Sunday night to see me. He had a pharmacy open up just for my medicine, and he did not charge anything for his visit. Michael Moore is right about not having health care and education be for profit services. Especially in a democratic country everyone should have the right to free health care and education. People should not mind paying taxes so that everyone can have these rights.
No comments:
Post a Comment