Moore's "Sicko" Is Sickening

Surprise! My wife and I saved some of the money we earned while we worked. Simple formula for some of us, but very difficult for the majority of people. The US has the most expensive health care system in the world, but it doesn't cover everybody like it should. We also don't have the best health care system, only the most expensive. My wife and I both have Medicare, but we still have co-pays for hospital visits and drugs. We pay cash for dental care.

No, my travels are not free, but we don't have a mortgage or car payments because we paid cash for our cars. Not true for most Americans; the majority are in debt. Our retirement portolio produces more income for my wife and I than most people earn by working. Good/lucky investments? Maybe.

We still care for our fellow man, and I'll continue to advocate for a universal health care, and we're willing to pay more in taxes for it.

I agree, C.I.. We also have no debts and enjoy a combination of retirement medical plans and medicare. But we would gladly reduce our coverage in favor of a universal health care system. We have excellent care, once one receives it, but the administration (distribution) of such care is SO inequitable, a national disgrace. Germany puts us to shame. Our insurance and pharmaceutical industries are so much like the actions of drug lords and mafiosos, testimonies to greed.

Why not visit a local homeless shelter and offer to pay the health insurance of several of the homless peopel living there. Kind hearts surely do kind deeds, don't they?

Miller, You are a ridiculous human.

Miller, I gather you have something to lose if your medical system were to change over to one like ours, where we pay more taxes, but everyone is covered.

Sounds like a better plan for the majority of Americans, but may not meet the standards of American docs is what I'm thinking ;-)

Greed is quite ugly, in my opinion!

Our medical system is not free. We pay more taxes than you guys to cover our health care and it works out just fine. Everyone is covered and that's one less damn thing we have to think about in this crazy world.

In our system, everyone gets treated fairly, no matter how much money you rake in and that's the way it should be.
Just because you make more money doesn't mean you deserve more. It's the least paid workers in the USA and most places who work the hardest and just because their paid less, have families to provide for and can't afford insurance, it doesn't mean they should be left to die.

A little humanity by some wouldn't hurt.

I find it quite amusing when people benefit from "free" public education, but see something drastically wrong with "free" medical care.

The "free" educational system in the US allowed us to become a very competitive society in the world market place. That in turn allowed people to accumulate wealth. Like georgeob said, there's no free lunch.

What's so reprehensible about having a healthy society?
We're pretty close to the bottom now!

I agree, CI. I think it's time the rich stop getting richer for doing less then the average labour worker.

If everyone pays into it, it evens out quite well as I grew to learn in my 7+ years here in Canada. I just can't find anything wrong with it and if there's something wrong with something, I tend to notice.

C.I.'s excellent point: "I find it quite amusing when people benefit from "free" public education, but see something drastically wrong with "free" medical care."

What's up with that?

I suggest you donate money to the poor to help pay their medical expenses and you call me "ridiculous"? How uncivilized of you, I must say.

Most Americans will not stand to wait long periods of time to see a doctor and it's for this reason ( among several others) that so many homicides take place in ERs across our country.

Greed probably played a major role in the development of the USA as a rich and powerful nation... same as England and her other colonies, wounldn't you say?

Hard, cold cash will carry you further in this World, than " a little humanity". Funny I don't see humanity paying Federal or State taxes nor property taxes for me or anyone else.

So?

You make it sound as if instituting universal health care would necessarily lead to longer waiting times.

But that's not the case. Germany, for example, has actually shorter waiting times than the United States, with virtually all of the population covered, and yearly health care costs per capita only about half of those in the US....


(You have many homicides taking place in ERs across the country? I didn't know that...)

I've never had free public education, but I've never had free medical care either.

Is there some reason, why you think welfare is a good idea?

Here's some info:

Why Canadians Purchase Private Health Insurance
by Walter Williams (June 20, 2005)


Summary: With all of the leftist hype extolling the "virtues" of Canada's universal healthcare system, you might wonder why any sane Canadian would want to purchase private insurance.

America's socialists advocate that we adopt a universal healthcare system like our northern neighbor Canada. Before we buy into complete socialization of our healthcare system, we might check out the Canadian Supreme Court's June 9th ruling in Chaoulli v. Quebec (Attorney General). It turns out that in order to prop up government-delivered medical care, Quebec and other Canadian provinces have outlawed private health insurance. By a 4 to 3 decision, Canada's high court struck down Quebec's law that prohibits private medical insurance. With all of the leftist hype extolling the "virtues" of Canada's universal healthcare system, you might wonder why any sane Canadian would want to purchase private insurance.

Plaintiffs Jacques Chaoulli, a physician, and his patient, George Zeliotis, launched their legal challenge to the government's monopolized healthcare system after having had to wait a year for hip-replacement surgery. In finding for the plaintiffs, Canada's high court said, "The evidence in this case shows that delays in the public healthcare system are widespread, and that, in some serious cases, patients die as a result of waiting lists for public healthcare. The evidence also demonstrates that the prohibition against private health insurance and its consequence of denying people vital healthcare result in physical and psychological suffering that meets a threshold test of seriousness." Writing for the majority, Justice Marie Deschamps said, "Many patients on non-urgent waiting lists are in pain and cannot fully enjoy any real quality of life. The right to life and to personal inviolability is therefore affected by the waiting times."

The Vancouver, British Columbia-based Fraser Institute keeps track of Canadian waiting times for various medical procedures. According to the Fraser Institute's 14th annual edition of "Waiting Your Turn: Hospital Waiting Lists in Canada (2004)," total waiting time between referral from a general practitioner and treatment, averaged across all 12 specialties and 10 provinces surveyed, rose from 17.7 weeks in 2003 to 17.9 weeks in 2004.

For example, depending on which Canadian province, an MRI requires a wait between 7 and 33 weeks.

Orthopaedic surgery might require a wait of 14 weeks for a referral from a general practitioner to the specialist and then another 24 weeks from the specialist to treatment. That statistic might help explain why Cleveland, Ohio, has become Canada's hip-replacement center.

As reported in a December 2003 story by Kerri Houston for the Frontiers of Freedom Institute titled "Access Denied: Canada's Healthcare System Turns Patients into Victims," in some instances, patients die on the waiting list because they become too sick to tolerate a procedure. Canada's Prime Minister Paul Martin responded to the court's decision saying, "We're not going to have a two-tier healthcare system in this country. What we want to do is strengthen the public healthcare system." That's the standard callous political response. He's telling Canadians to continue waiting, continue suffering and perhaps dying until the day comes when there's no more waiting. And though Canadian politicians can't give their citizens a date certain when there'll be no more waiting, they're determined to deny them alternatives to waiting for government-provided healthcare. I'd bet you the rent money that Prime Minister Martin and members of the Canadian Parliament don't have to wait months and years for a medical procedure.

I wonder just how many Americans would like to import Canada's healthcare system, which prohibits the purchase of private insurance and private healthcare services. In British Columbia, for example, Bill 82 provides that a physician can be fined up to $20,000 for accepting fees for surgery. In my book, it's medical Naziism for government to prohibit a person who wishes to purchase medical services from doing so. But let's not look down our noses at our northern neighbors, for we too are well along the road toward medical Naziism.


About the Author: Born in Philadelphia in 1936, Walter E. Williams holds a bachelor's degree in economics from California State University (1965) and a master's degree (1967) and doctorate (1972) in economics from the University of California at Los Angeles.

Capitalism Magazine

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