In class today we enjoyed the film "Sicko." Please discuss your thoughts about the movie and your perception of the Healthcare System. Do you think that a for-profit system can ever work??
After watching the video I was shocked and nervous about having to deal with health insurance in the future. It made health insurance in the US seem so terrible and like they are just looking for ways to save themselves money and don't care about the suffering people that need help. I felt discouraged after the film and felt like I needed to move to Canada or Europe in order to have good health care that I could depend on that wouldn't cost me a ridiculous amount of money. I'm not sure that a system like the ones in London or Canada could happen here. It showed how Hilary Clinton tried hard to make that happen for us but the people in power are the ones that are benefiting from the costly health care that we have now, so it will be hard to make a change. Like one of the men from Canada said though, it only took one man to change Canada's health care, so maybe if a really powerful person came along in the US that believed in this they could make a difference if they could get the support that they need to make it happen. I would like to one day see a system in the US like there is in Europe and Canada, it seems a lot better than ours, everyone gets the help that they need and the people in the film that lived in these places seemed very happy with their health care. Not having to pay for hospital stays or surgeries, no deductibles, and getting paid for your traveling expenses if you need it seems a lot better than the system that we have here!
I agree with what you said as well. The movie is making me feel like health care will be near impossible to attain when the time comes. It also makes me feel like I have to live elsewhere to get proper medical care. I can't help but be skeptical as well because our health care can't be all bad, at least that is what I want to think, and I also wonder if health care else where is really as good as people say it is.
I agree that watching Sicko today in class makes me really nervous to start the scary search for a job/health care in a little bit more than a year. I think that universal health care is definitely possible--as is evidenced by France, Canada, England, etc. However, I think it is a very abysmal looking future for universal health care in this country--mostly because pharmaceutical companies control EVERYTHING, most importantly, the government. Hopefully, with this administration, we can make some headway, but it seems that it might not be anywhere in the near future with all the debt the US is already in. It was definitely eye opening though. I never realized how many excuses insurance companies could come up with just to turn someone down.
Watching the movie was a real eye opener for how corrupt insurance companies are. With becoming a PA, I am kind of nervous in having to deal with insurance companies declining patients that truly deserve it. It broke my heart watching stories of people in need dealing with bad health care treatment.
I was also upset that some US doctors are given bonuses based on how many patients they decline. That is just wrong overall. Doctors and medical professional’s jobs are to help people, and should not be told by insurance companies who they can and cannot treat. CEO's and politicians do not go to med school, nor should they be the ones making the overall final decision.
I do like how doctors in Europe are given bonuses based on their patient care. Bonuses should be a positive reinforcement for doctors based on the ability to improve their patient’s health. It makes me want to move to England and practice medicine over their.
Europe and Canada seem to have the perfect health care system. But they mentioned briefly about paying taxes to get healthcare benefits. My question is how much more taxes do they have to pay to get national healthcare, compared to how we pay for our healthcare in the states?
Watching the movie Sicko made me scared of when I get off my parents healthcare. When I was 5 years. old I was diagnosed with type 1 insulin dependent diabetes and I will always have it. When I get off my parents healthcare I am afraid that there is not going to be a company out there willing to pay for all my supplies and doctors exams because it is extremely costly. The movie had mentioned three illnesses that no insurance company wants to take on and one of those illnesses is diabetes. My heart also went out to the family they showed who had to move into their daughters home because they could not afford where they were living before because of the medical costs. It seems like more and more of that is happening today because the healthcare system is so screwed up in who they will pay for and they will not pay for. It is all so sad.
I also thought this movie made a very good point but did not show much of the other side like how other countries healthcare systems flaws. he just portrayed the good aspects that he wanted to. i also think it is ironic that government gets to make all the decisions that effect so many people but they are fully covered and get the best healthcare possible and would never have to deal with the problem almoat all other amerocans have to face. if they had to go through everything that normal americans had to go through with healthinsurance i am sure their would be more rapid changes in the system.
After watching the movie, I am not looking forward to dealing with health insurance and the healthcare system in my future. I am rather scared about payments, denial of care and many other things that he touched on in the movie.
I think that the most effective part of the film were the stories about the American families that have gone bankrupt or that have lost loved ones because their insurance wouldn't cover the cost or they were denied healthcare. This really got to me because I know of some people in my life that are dealing with the cost of healthcare or fighting with the insurance about making payments. Ultimately, I wouldn't mind paying higher taxes to get universal healthcare because if my family or I were to come down with a severe disease of illness, it will cost you more money with insurance than it would with higher taxes for universal healthcare.
The movie really opened my eyes to some of the horrible things that occur in our own country. I knew that there are many issues dealing with people without insurance, but i never knew that people in life or death situations could be turned away.
I agree that i would have liked to see the good and bad parts to healthcare in places like France, but feel like it's something we need to move toward reguardless. I can't see how the negitives could outweigh the benefits. I'm not that it would be possible to completley get away from health insurance companies all together, but i think we need to try.
I am personally ready to defect or at least live abroad. I'll miss my family but you can't beat the health and education benefits. having lived in europe before I was already aware of this information and have wanted to there but was unaware of how to pay for the change.
i really enjoyed the movie "sicko" but becoming aware of just how messed up the health care system in our country is made me really nervous. I personally don't think that a for-profit system will ever work becasue the companies are too interested in thier bottom line. the health of the patient should be at the fore front, which in a for profit system it is clearly not. its not fair for the american public to have to budget thier health care, being healthy should be a right, not a privilege. if we had a universal health care system like the rest of the western world americans would have one less thing to worry about.
I really enjoyed the movie sicko. Working in the health care system now, I see everything this video explained. It is a shame that insurance companies will decline a patient so they dont have to pay for expensive procedures etc. I can relate an EMS call that I had recently where a patient declined going to the hospital because he has no health insurance and couldnt afford the ambulance ride to the hospital.
I really like the way the European health care system works. I like that you dont see bills, doctors get bonuses based on the amount of patients that get better etc. I would love to work in a health care system like this one day.
I really enjoyed the movie Sicko and wish that it was a film that more people had a chance to watch and be exposed to. I had no idea how great the health care system was in France and over seas in general. Like the movie said, I feel as if the United States has been given the wrong impression of these countries. If the health care system over in France works for it's citizens, how come the United States can't make the switch? It will take some adjustment on our part, but I feel as if it would be for the better. It would improve health care nation-wide and give Americans the time to take care of themselves without having to worry about bills, choosing which finger to get sown back on, etc.
Of all of Michael Moore's movies, I can undoubtedly say that Sicko is my favorite. While I thought that both Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 911 were strong films, I was able to relate much more to the situations shown and discussed in Sicko. I'm sure that many people, after viewing this film, found it difficult to maintain their "Proud to be an American" attitude. I wonder what it would take to gather all the Presidents, Vice Presidents, CEOs of every major health insurance company as well as the FDA, and question them about their thoughts on a universal health care system, and how they could sleep at night knowing that situations like the ones shown in Sicko are occuring all over the US.
Basically, i agree with what everyone else said!! I was pretty disgusted with america after watching this movie. I knew that our healthcare system was not the best but i didnt realize how damaging instead of helpful that it actually was. To have all the resources that we do and to be one of the most powerful countries in the world and NOT allow everyone to have equal access to them seems unjust...especially when other countries who have then less than us have healthier and happier citizens. Obviously, to just change from our current system to a universal healthcare system like Canada's or England's would require alot of work that would take years. But change is what we need and if we put in the work, we will get the results that every developed country besdies us are enjoying.
After watching Sicko, I felt really embarrassed about how uneducated I was on U.S. healthcare. I always grew up with the perception we lived in the best place for medicine and healthcare. Now I realize this is what we were taught to believe, but it is very wrong. Also, I live close to the border of Canada, and it is always discussed how horrible Canada's healthcare system is,but once again Sicko proved to me that this was also a misconception. I'm hoping with Obama we will work towards universal healthcare so that everyone gets equal and valid treatment. No one should be turned away because they cannot pay. There is no price on a human life.
A switch to a national health care system would be beneficial in many ways. This institutional change could provide healthcare to millions of people who can't afford it. This system could increase the quality of care that is provided; insurance and HMO's would no longer be an issue. This national health care system could also help to reduce the pharmaceutical prices. This would actually allow the sick to take the proper regiments of there medications. Despite the tax increase would result from a national health care system, it could possibly help unify our society. Everyone would have to contribute to help better our society. I'm sure that there are many opponents for a national heath care system, but why?? Sicko was meant to inspire and make people aware of the better public heath care system, and it worked. It is frustrating to know that the American ethnocentrism has helped to blind the possibility of a better form of health care. But, the more agitating aspect is that there is not much we can do as individuals to fix this problem. This is the result of the pharmaceutical and insurance companies ability to influencing the governmental policies. As a result the American ideology of heath care is affected. The only effective way to change our health care system would be to come together as a whole, and force the government to change its polices.
Although Moore, sometimes is over the top with his movies, he does have good points. European policies on health care are moving towards the right direction. The US can look at those countries and learn a thing or two. Everyone can do their part to show the government we want change in our healthcare system. However, many of the people with "real" power, have insurance and therefore do not realize the lifestyles people have to live with out it.
After watching the video I was shocked and nervous about having to deal with health insurance in the future. It made health insurance in the US seem so terrible and like they are just looking for ways to save themselves money and don't care about the suffering people that need help. I felt discouraged after the film and felt like I needed to move to Canada or Europe in order to have good health care that I could depend on that wouldn't cost me a ridiculous amount of money. I'm not sure that a system like the ones in London or Canada could happen here. It showed how Hilary Clinton tried hard to make that happen for us but the people in power are the ones that are benefiting from the costly health care that we have now, so it will be hard to make a change. Like one of the men from Canada said though, it only took one man to change Canada's health care, so maybe if a really powerful person came along in the US that believed in this they could make a difference if they could get the support that they need to make it happen. I would like to one day see a system in the US like there is in Europe and Canada, it seems a lot better than ours, everyone gets the help that they need and the people in the film that lived in these places seemed very happy with their health care. Not having to pay for hospital stays or surgeries, no deductibles, and getting paid for your traveling expenses if you need it seems a lot better than the system that we have here!
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said as well. The movie is making me feel like health care will be near impossible to attain when the time comes. It also makes me feel like I have to live elsewhere to get proper medical care. I can't help but be skeptical as well because our health care can't be all bad, at least that is what I want to think, and I also wonder if health care else where is really as good as people say it is.
ReplyDeleteI agree that watching Sicko today in class makes me really nervous to start the scary search for a job/health care in a little bit more than a year. I think that universal health care is definitely possible--as is evidenced by France, Canada, England, etc. However, I think it is a very abysmal looking future for universal health care in this country--mostly because pharmaceutical companies control EVERYTHING, most importantly, the government. Hopefully, with this administration, we can make some headway, but it seems that it might not be anywhere in the near future with all the debt the US is already in. It was definitely eye opening though. I never realized how many excuses insurance companies could come up with just to turn someone down.
ReplyDeleteWatching the movie was a real eye opener for how corrupt insurance companies are. With becoming a PA, I am kind of nervous in having to deal with insurance companies declining patients that truly deserve it. It broke my heart watching stories of people in need dealing with bad health care treatment.
ReplyDeleteI was also upset that some US doctors are given bonuses based on how many patients they decline. That is just wrong overall. Doctors and medical professional’s jobs are to help people, and should not be told by insurance companies who they can and cannot treat. CEO's and politicians do not go to med school, nor should they be the ones making the overall final decision.
I do like how doctors in Europe are given bonuses based on their patient care. Bonuses should be a positive reinforcement for doctors based on the ability to improve their patient’s health. It makes me want to move to England and practice medicine over their.
Europe and Canada seem to have the perfect health care system. But they mentioned briefly about paying taxes to get healthcare benefits. My question is how much more taxes do they have to pay to get national healthcare, compared to how we pay for our healthcare in the states?
Watching the movie Sicko made me scared of when I get off my parents healthcare. When I was 5 years. old I was diagnosed with type 1 insulin dependent diabetes and I will always have it. When I get off my parents healthcare I am afraid that there is not going to be a company out there willing to pay for all my supplies and doctors exams because it is extremely costly. The movie had mentioned three illnesses that no insurance company wants to take on and one of those illnesses is diabetes.
ReplyDeleteMy heart also went out to the family they showed who had to move into their daughters home because they could not afford where they were living before because of the medical costs. It seems like more and more of that is happening today because the healthcare system is so screwed up in who they will pay for and they will not pay for. It is all so sad.
I also thought this movie made a very good point but did not show much of the other side like how other countries healthcare systems flaws. he just portrayed the good aspects that he wanted to. i also think it is ironic that government gets to make all the decisions that effect so many people but they are fully covered and get the best healthcare possible and would never have to deal with the problem almoat all other amerocans have to face. if they had to go through everything that normal americans had to go through with healthinsurance i am sure their would be more rapid changes in the system.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching the movie, I am not looking forward to dealing with health insurance and the healthcare system in my future. I am rather scared about payments, denial of care and many other things that he touched on in the movie.
ReplyDeleteI think that the most effective part of the film were the stories about the American families that have gone bankrupt or that have lost loved ones because their insurance wouldn't cover the cost or they were denied healthcare. This really got to me because I know of some people in my life that are dealing with the cost of healthcare or fighting with the insurance about making payments. Ultimately, I wouldn't mind paying higher taxes to get universal healthcare because if my family or I were to come down with a severe disease of illness, it will cost you more money with insurance than it would with higher taxes for universal healthcare.
The movie really opened my eyes to some of the horrible things that occur in our own country. I knew that there are many issues dealing with people without insurance, but i never knew that people in life or death situations could be turned away.
ReplyDeleteI agree that i would have liked to see the good and bad parts to healthcare in places like France, but feel like it's something we need to move toward reguardless. I can't see how the negitives could outweigh the benefits. I'm not that it would be possible to completley get away from health insurance companies all together, but i think we need to try.
I am personally ready to defect or at least live abroad. I'll miss my family but you can't beat the health and education benefits. having lived in europe before I was already aware of this information and have wanted to there but was unaware of how to pay for the change.
ReplyDeletei really enjoyed the movie "sicko" but becoming aware of just how messed up the health care system in our country is made me really nervous. I personally don't think that a for-profit system will ever work becasue the companies are too interested in thier bottom line. the health of the patient should be at the fore front, which in a for profit system it is clearly not. its not fair for the american public to have to budget thier health care, being healthy should be a right, not a privilege. if we had a universal health care system like the rest of the western world americans would have one less thing to worry about.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the movie sicko. Working in the health care system now, I see everything this video explained. It is a shame that insurance companies will decline a patient so they dont have to pay for expensive procedures etc. I can relate an EMS call that I had recently where a patient declined going to the hospital because he has no health insurance and couldnt afford the ambulance ride to the hospital.
ReplyDeleteI really like the way the European health care system works. I like that you dont see bills, doctors get bonuses based on the amount of patients that get better etc. I would love to work in a health care system like this one day.
Craig McCord
I really enjoyed the movie Sicko and wish that it was a film that more people had a chance to watch and be exposed to. I had no idea how great the health care system was in France and over seas in general. Like the movie said, I feel as if the United States has been given the wrong impression of these countries. If the health care system over in France works for it's citizens, how come the United States can't make the switch? It will take some adjustment on our part, but I feel as if it would be for the better. It would improve health care nation-wide and give Americans the time to take care of themselves without having to worry about bills, choosing which finger to get sown back on, etc.
ReplyDeleteOf all of Michael Moore's movies, I can undoubtedly say that Sicko is my favorite. While I thought that both Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 911 were strong films, I was able to relate much more to the situations shown and discussed in Sicko. I'm sure that many people, after viewing this film, found it difficult to maintain their "Proud to be an American" attitude. I wonder what it would take to gather all the Presidents, Vice Presidents, CEOs of every major health insurance company as well as the FDA, and question them about their thoughts on a universal health care system, and how they could sleep at night knowing that situations like the ones shown in Sicko are occuring all over the US.
ReplyDeleteBasically, i agree with what everyone else said!! I was pretty disgusted with america after watching this movie. I knew that our healthcare system was not the best but i didnt realize how damaging instead of helpful that it actually was. To have all the resources that we do and to be one of the most powerful countries in the world and NOT allow everyone to have equal access to them seems unjust...especially when other countries who have then less than us have healthier and happier citizens. Obviously, to just change from our current system to a universal healthcare system like Canada's or England's would require alot of work that would take years. But change is what we need and if we put in the work, we will get the results that every developed country besdies us are enjoying.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching Sicko, I felt really embarrassed about how uneducated I was on U.S. healthcare. I always grew up with the perception we lived in the best place for medicine and healthcare. Now I realize this is what we were taught to believe, but it is very wrong. Also, I live close to the border of Canada, and it is always discussed how horrible Canada's healthcare system is,but once again Sicko proved to me that this was also a misconception. I'm hoping with Obama we will work towards universal healthcare so that everyone gets equal and valid treatment. No one should be turned away because they cannot pay. There is no price on a human life.
ReplyDeleteA switch to a national health care system would be beneficial in many ways. This institutional change could provide healthcare to millions of people who can't afford it. This system could increase the quality of care that is provided; insurance and HMO's would no longer be an issue. This national health care system could also help to reduce the pharmaceutical prices. This would actually allow the sick to take the proper regiments of there medications. Despite the tax increase would result from a national health care system, it could possibly help unify our society. Everyone would have to contribute to help better our society. I'm sure that there are many opponents for a national heath care system, but why??
ReplyDeleteSicko was meant to inspire and make people aware of the better public heath care system, and it worked. It is frustrating to know that the American ethnocentrism has helped to blind the possibility of a better form of health care. But, the more agitating aspect is that there is not much we can do as individuals to fix this problem. This is the result of the pharmaceutical and insurance companies ability to influencing the governmental policies. As a result the American ideology of heath care is affected. The only effective way to change our health care system would be to come together as a whole, and force the government to change its polices.
Although Moore, sometimes is over the top with his movies, he does have good points. European policies on health care are moving towards the right direction. The US can look at those countries and learn a thing or two. Everyone can do their part to show the government we want change in our healthcare system. However, many of the people with "real" power, have insurance and therefore do not realize the lifestyles people have to live with out it.
ReplyDelete-Angela E