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Location: Everybody is going to hurt you, you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for-B Marley
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Did anyone see Michael Moore's 'Sicko'? What did you think of it? I missed the first half so I'm going to watch it again tonight but it sure prompted a lot of questions about our country's healthcare so I'd be interested in what others have to say about it, both here and abroad. What details, particularly, should I watch for when I watch tonight, anything special?
I agree. The movie makes it sound like healthcare in other countries is vastly superior to ours. What he doesn't note is that the subsidized healthcare is causing massive financial strains on the economy of these countries. Many countries do not cover dental. Do you know why? Because the cost for medical is already sky-high, so they couldn't afford to include dental.
The UK provides free dental though. I've had 3 patients come from the UK to PAY me to do their dental work because they say the system there is horrible.
Here's another thought. Ever heard of the phrase, "you get what you pay for"? If you want superior healthcare, you're going to have to pay a premium to a person who's willing to put the time and effort into becoming an excellent doctor in exchange for good compensation. This is where government and insurance company intervention breaks down. The government must collect taxes to pay for healthcare. They want to make it "affordable", so they minimize tax collections and choose to pay hospitals less. If a hospital wants to pay a competitive wage to its doctors, the hospital has to lower customer service and increase volume---i.e., you wait longer and spend less time with a doctor. The more people on this plan---especially those that don't pay their fare share---the worse this gets. The best way to improve it is to collect more taxes, but that won't be popular. How about cutting doctor salaries? Sure. But are the smartest people going to want to become doctors? Put in 8-15 years, thousands of additional hours, and $100,000+ in loans to earn the same amount as someone who didn't have to do that? You get what you pay for...
I'm not against universal healthcare, by the way. Access to healthcare for everyone should be a universal right. How to go about doing it is the question... one that's as difficult to solve as this economy!
One final point, one that really irks me about Michael Moore documentaries. He tries to be the champion of the blue collar worker, but he's no longer one of them. He's a multi-millionaire. Since you earned it on the backs of blue collar workers, and you decry how corporations use and abuse "little guys", why don't you give some back?
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