WOW.
The war in Iraq’s new roommate as the top US presidential election issue: Healthcare.
The theatrical release date is 06/29/2007, how did you manage to see it?
I was channel surfing on the way home last week when I found, I think, Pacifica Radio. Sounded like it anyway. They were playing Michael Moore addressing the California Legislature and he talked about issues brought up in his film. Healthcare is a bit of a hot-button issue for me. It really gets me steamed that we pretty much stand alone amongst the Western industialised nations in that we don’t see health care as a Human Right. I don’t want to get into a debate here, since this is Café Society, but it seems as if that’s the point of Moore’s film.
After Moore spoke a woman spoke to the Legislature about her 18-month-old daughter who died after Kaiser refused to allow the hospital she was taken to to give her a blood test. She had to be taken to a Kaiser hospital, and by then it was too late. She was also in Moore’s film.
I’m looking forward to seeing this film. I hope it brings such problems as the one above with Kaiser to Americans’ attention.
You will get your wish.
Wow, I had no idea the problem was this bad. What we need to do is overthrow the Kaiser and install a new government that’s not full of guys with mustaches and spiked helmets.
I am so effing glad I live in Canada. Our health care system is faaaaaaaaar from perfect: long wait times, a shortage of doctors & nurses and overcrowded hospitals are constantly in the news. But at least you will never see an 18-month-old die because she went to the “wrong” hospital for a blood test, and no one has to declare personal bankruptcy because they have a bum heart or got cancer or were in an accident.
I heard Moore interviewed on CBC radio (the North American premiere of his film was in London, Ontario), and the way he is being persecuted by the US Government is atrocious. If they want to embargo Cuba, that’s fine. But at least be upfront about it and don’t claim that they are “a free country”. Why do American travel agencies even SELL tickets to GO to Cuba, then?
I’ve talked to a great number of people who are, or have been, covered by Kaiser Permanente. From the large variety of stories, I have surmised that KP is a fantastic, convenient, affordable health insurance system for people who never actually, you know, get sick.
Canadian here.
When my best friend and I were 14 he had a brain aneurysm right in front of me. We lived in the poorest part of town, both of us were from single-parent families on social assistance.
He was air-ambulanced to a suitable hospital in Vancouver, 500 miles away. His condition was such that there were only three surgeons in Canada who had the skill/training to perform the operation he needed. So they flew one out from Toronto. The surgery alone cost $200,000. In-hospital recovery period: six months. Total cost to my friend’s family: Zero
Sorry to burst the Canadian bubbles, but according to Moore on the Daily Show, this documentary is not advocating for socialized health care. It’s an expose of the fraud, corruption, and tycoonism of pharmaceutical, health care, and health insurance companies. That’s why Republican rank and file like it as much as Democrats. Even FoxNews gave it an ebullient review, calling it “brilliant”. Moore’s wish is that what we have is cleaned up, not that we replace what we have with socialism.
Mmm, it is not socialism anyhow, but even in the previews he does show the contrast of a black young couple taking their new born son out of the hospital in England and reporting on not having to deal with bills.
“No, this is not America, Heh”
I think Moore is soft-selling on purpose so he doesn’t alienate people.
IMO, corruption, greed and injustice are inevitable when you sell basic human rights for profit.
We’re verging on GD territory here, but living in a country with universal health care, I can assure you that it’s not socialism*, per se. It’s simply a choice for the government about what to do with its tax revenue.
Now, the universal health care we get is certainly flawed, but it’s equally flawed, meaning it’s as bad /good for everyone, and not tied to the whimsey of a private corporation, i.e. the misery is evenly spread. I actually think that’s the lesser of two evils, but obviously YMDV.
As for the documentary, I’ve heard reports that Moore is grandstanding less, and that SICKO is a far superior movie, as compared to F9/11 as a movie, notwithstanding the agenda.
*It survivede Thatcher in Britain.
After seeing the film, I would say that he is, in fact, advocating socialized health care.
For me, it’s puke versus vomit. I reject on principle the central plan of a private corporation or a government bureaucracy with equal measure of contempt. The only plan I care to enact is my own.
That’s certainly possible.
I don’t think people become magically immune to greed and corruption just because they occupy positions of considerable power.
It doesn’t surprise me that people could take different interpretations, given, as I said, that both sides like it. I won’t be seeing it until it’s on TV. For us, the whole theater experience just isn’t what it … doo doo be doo doo eedle doo be eedle doo bah wap bop doo eedle! … hello? Yeah, hi, no we’re just at the theater. … Shut the fuck up!
If you are implying tha politicians can be corrupt, of course you are correct; but it’s unlikely that your average MP or even the PM would directly profit from refusing lifesaving surgery to someone, like the woman in Sicko’s trailer did.
Anyway, that’s probably for another thread.
I still plan on going to see it and feeling smug throughout. Probably won’t be interrupted by a cellphone, either - I go to a cinema with (deservedly) well-paid ushers. 
Taken directly from michaelmoore.com, halfway down the front page:
“…my stated desire that “Sicko” ignite a fire for free, universal health care…”
In the radio piece I heard, Moore questioned why this is a bad thing. He said that our police departments and fire departments are socialised. They are paid for through our taxes. Why should health care, he asked, be different from any other life-saving group?
Another point he brought up to the California Legislature, and I believe this is also in the film, is that 30% of the money going to private insurers goes to overhead. By contrast the U.S. government spends 3% – one-tenth the amount – on overhead, and Canada pays one-point-something percent. Moore also suggests that people who think the government is incapable of administering such a large plan should ask an old person if he or she receives his or her Social Security check every month. He claims that not only do people get their checks, they are for the proper amount and they arrive on the same day of the month.
Man, I can tell this film is going to piss me off!
It’s “out there” as they say. But SDMB rules forbid any discussion of how to acquire it. But there is always Google.
Plan on watching it tomorrow… Should be interesting… I can’t say things are magically amazing here in Canada healthwise, but I’ve been able to see a doctor when I’ve needed to - even got same day appointments with my doc (AKA - Primary Care Physician in the U.S. 
), and got an appointment with a specialist in just over a week.
Not bad… and since this isn’t the pit, don’t get me started on the year I had Kaiser for my health care in NorCal… :eek:
Seems to have been taken down.