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Sicko


drock59

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Wow miles, that surprises me. I would highly encourage you to watch it on DVD or something...its pretty moving.

 

The guy has made some really slanted and out there stuff in the past but this documentary is a bit different in my opinion.

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The problem with health care in our country is that is has been taken hostage by insurance companies, and the Federal Government.

 

To fix it we need to utilize HSA's and other similar options. This will return the power in healthcare to the comsumer, and away from those that profit from the current system. This can be done by giving the same or better tax benefits to companies who contribute to a employees HSA, as they get for purchasing "regular" healthcare benefits.

 

There are people who wouldn't benfit from this, and those people should still be allowed to have regular healthcare insurance. It would take a couple of decades to get the transition completed, but meanwhile people are suffering, and if we wait more people will suffer.

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The problem I see is that its no longer the doctors prescribing treatments, its the insurance companies. With the outragous prices of meds these days, a doctor can perscribe something, but its up to the insurance company to say if they will pay. Most of us cannot afford cancer meds at 4k/month, or blood pressure meds at 500+/month. The power has been taken from the doctors, and I don't want some money hungry exec saying what i can and can't take to fix whatever might be wrong with me, thats the doctors job.

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The government shouldn't be in charge of the government let alone health care. We should have universal health care but instead of it being run directly from the government we should have insurance companies submit bids for contracts from state to state with specifications about what is covered and the like. Then the government cuts them a big check. The insurance companies do a pretty good job of holding the prices of what doctors can charge down. I used to hear them complain about it all the time. The problem with drugs is that these companies keep researching drugs to treat things that already have good drugs to treat them. These new drugs usually are not as effective as the old drugs and have more side effects. Then after they have spent a ton of money on research they want to get these drugs sold so they do tons of national advertising about how great these drugs are and then go smooze the doctors telling them how great there new product is and then giving them incentives for selling it. So you have someone who comes in to their office asking for a drug that the doctor is getting a kickback on of course the doctor puts them on the drug. Then eventually people have problems with the new drugs and sue the drug companies and have to take more medication or have surgery to fix the problems. Then every once in awhile the drug companies actually come up with a medication that is a great new medication but it is rare and in order for them to stay in business they have to generate income with all the garbage they are producing.

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Saying insureance companies have kept doctors prices in check, is like saying murders are helping to keep the population levels undercontrol. Backwards thinking.

 

Insurance companies tell doctors how much they are going to get from the insureance company. They don't keep the doctors prices inline, they dictate them.

 

Try this sometime just for giggles. Call you doctor, ask him how much he will charge you for a visit if you pay him CASH, and not involved the insurance company. I can almost guarentee you it is less then he will charge the insurance company. Why? Because off all the crap he has to go through to get paid by the insurance company.

 

Also how is it Phizer or Bayer, or other large drug companies, can afford to sell their medication in Canada, Mexico, and other contries, at a fraction of the price it costs here? That doesn't seem to be undercontrol by the insureance companies. It they really needed that much to make a profit, it wouldn't be cheeper elsewhere.

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The problem is the health care system (including insurance companies)is it has become a business, it is no longer for the good of the people, it is about the all might dollar. A little off topic here, but this is happening with animals now. Vets used to be reasonable when it was simply for the good of the pet and not everyone had them, but now that pets are everywhere and the trendy thing to have, rates for everything have gone up for animals... To get my mom's dogs fixed 4 years ago, it was roughly 80 bucks , my finance's bosses, just got a new dog fixed and it was 300+, and that was the price at multiple places.

 

Everything has investors now and they want to make that all mighty dollar, and the health care system is just another place to do so.

 

I also think that a major factor in the price of health care is malpractice suits. Since our country thinks it is ok to award 2 million dollars to a lady who spills coffee in her lap, these sort of high dollar stupid lawsuits have set a precedent and have since gotten out of hand. Has anyone noticed less and less "personal private" doctors or a "family doctor" who practices out of a nice little office? This is because they can not afford the malpractice insurance.

 

I think the government needs to stop being greedy and do what it was intended to do and protect the people not make excessive amounts of money off of them...If it were an ideal world, the government would be setting laws into place that kept the cost down, from insurance companies. I would say that it would help to be privatized but, insurance is privatized and we all see how well that is doing.

 

I do not think we should have universal health care, I do not believe in a socialist society...

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The film "Sicko" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joaAfBr9tAE seemed to be very factual and confirms what many of us have experienced.

It is not only the poor that have inadequate health care. Many hard working people do not have health coverage included by their employer.

It's about time that the truth is known.

A very good synopsis of the film can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicko

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The film "Sicko" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joaAfBr9tAE seemed to be very factual and confirms what many of us have experienced.

It is not only the poor that have inadequate health care. Many hard working people do not have health coverage included by their employer.

It's about time that the truth is known.

A very good synopsis of the film can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicko

 

Actually in most states if you are poor enough you have the best health care there is besides in the government.

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The problem is the health care system (including insurance companies)is it has become a business, it is no longer for the good of the people, it is about the all might dollar. A little off topic here, but this is happening with animals now. Vets used to be reasonable when it was simply for the good of the pet and not everyone had them, but now that pets are everywhere and the trendy thing to have, rates for everything have gone up for animals... To get my mom's dogs fixed 4 years ago, it was roughly 80 bucks , my finance's bosses, just got a new dog fixed and it was 300+, and that was the price at multiple places.

 

Everything has investors now and they want to make that all mighty dollar, and the health care system is just another place to do so.

 

I also think that a major factor in the price of health care is malpractice suits. Since our country thinks it is ok to award 2 million dollars to a lady who spills coffee in her lap, these sort of high dollar stupid lawsuits have set a precedent and have since gotten out of hand. Has anyone noticed less and less "personal private" doctors or a "family doctor" who practices out of a nice little office? This is because they can not afford the malpractice insurance.

 

I think the government needs to stop being greedy and do what it was intended to do and protect the people not make excessive amounts of money off of them...If it were an ideal world, the government would be setting laws into place that kept the cost down, from insurance companies. I would say that it would help to be privatized but, insurance is privatized and we all see how well that is doing.

 

I do not think we should have universal health care, I do not believe in a socialist society...

 

Yeah ...It's all about the dollar huh.

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in the end... I have great insurance and i am a regular working Joe (or Ryan as the case may be). my prescription meds never go over $10 for generic or $40 for name brand, and i have never had a problem getting treatment and never have had to pay more than my own co-pay. so there is some decent treatment out there... as for the other stuff.

 

Sicko- I can't stand Mike Moore and his crap.

Gov't- I think there needs to be some very big changes in the FDA and associated groups that manage healthcare and meds. but under no circumstances do i support universal health care. I spent 2 years under a socialized health care system and it was awful. it was also stagnant and little effort was made toward developing new systems/methods for/in health care.

 

I think a good start would be to nail the phamacutecals for price gouging us, then cap malpractice limits and consequently cap the malpractice insurance costs. then we would see a decent drop in prices for health care.

 

then once we get rid of the friggin illegal immigrants that are killing our welfare system and raising our healthcare costs... we might be a little better off.

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I've heard it's a great movie and I can't wait to watch it, but I find documentaries like this frustrating, because I know it's a serious problem and nothing will ever change.

 

The worst possible thing we could do is allow the pharm companies to have ANY MORE control of our healthcare. They roll us over and give it to us all day long as it is. That'd be like giving rapists the keys to a female prison. I can't think of a WORSE idea.

 

There need to be seriously strict federally-mandated limitations on the amt of mark-up they're even allowed on their drugs.

 

I don't mind them making a little money because ability to make profit drives research; however, the level of mark-up on many of the drugs in the country is vomitous.

 

Doctors are just as bad. All they care about is avoiding lawsuits and they'll overtest, not diagnose, over-diagnose, and lie, all just to cover their own arses. They don't care about patients at all. It didn't take long working in a hospital to see that 100% of healthcare is motivated by two things and two things only: Making money and Avoiding lawsuits. Even the few doctors who start out with good intentions soon turn into the same robots as all the rest.

 

The pharm industry unfortunately has our government in their pockets, just like the NRA and oil companies. It's revolting, but it won't change.

 

Zofran is a great example. It's made by GlaxoSmithKline. It's about the only fully-safe low-side-effect anti-nausea drug for immune-weakened chemo patients with cancer. It JUST went generic and the generic pills--8mg--are still $25/pill with insurance paying half. That's $50/pill for generic!!! WTH?? The name-brand was almost twice that. PER PILL??? This is a drug for dying cancer patients. Most can't get near Zofran due to cost, so they suffer. GSK doesn't care. None of the other pharm co are any better...

 

We're living in a virtual corpocracy.

 

Ironically, the whole thing just makes me SICK.. :D

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another consequence...

 

Well...

My job was exported with the rich foreigners (which all were educated in the USA) taking jobs home where they make 20 times the average local wage.... Some of them have drivers and maids... and the 3 of them combined making less than a third of my salary.... (Lawyers make lots more :) ).

They have socialized healthcare! Saved my company (at the time) $500 million.

Making it lucrative to export labor and import everything else, treat it as disposable... destroys the middle class... Both in India and here... The rich get richer... the middle class becomes the poor and the poor become poorer...Boy China is really going to start producing...

 

Hence... I am back at school trying to engineer for the healthcare industry... that and the service industry ( and lawyers)... will be all that is left for work in america. small niches will always exist... Hope to create one or work in one.

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Sorry to hear that but socialized medicine has been a failure every where else it has been tried. Sure it doesn't cost anything but you can end up on a waiting list for an eternity to get in to get something done. I don't know if any of you have ever been to a military doctor but I can imagine that is what this would end up being like. All the worthless doctors that can't practice in the real world end up flocking to the military because they are protected against lawsuits. You go to a military doctor for just about anything and they will send you home with some 800mg motrin and hope you get better.

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Sorry to hear that but socialized medicine has been a failure every where else it has been tried. Sure it doesn't cost anything but you can end up on a waiting list for an eternity to get in to get something done. I don't know if any of you have ever been to a military doctor but I can imagine that is what this would end up being like. All the worthless doctors that can't practice in the real world end up flocking to the military because they are protected against lawsuits. You go to a military doctor for just about anything and they will send you home with some 800mg motrin and hope you get better.

 

Yes sorry to hear that as well.

 

Socialized medicine isn't free. You just don't pay for it like we do now. You pay in higher taxes, slower service, and rationed medicine.

 

When my dad was stationed in Australia when I was a child, I got so sick that after a year of seeing military doctors, I had to be flown down to Perth to see a specialist. Upon arriving at the doctors office, he told my mother, that if I wasn't an American citizen of American parents, he would make me a ward of the state. (Not his exact words, but you get the idea)

 

The Australian doctor treated me and 2 weeks later, I was well. After a year of being sick. That is how the US Government runs healthcare.

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Bill my mom had Graves disease last year. She went the route of killing off the thyroid with a radioactive pill or something. Was tough going for a few months but now she is doing great. I hope your outcome is the same, good luck.

 

 

Miles

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Yes sorry to hear that as well.

 

Socialized medicine isn't free. You just don't pay for it like we do now. You pay in higher taxes, slower service, and rationed medicine.

 

When my dad was stationed in Australia when I was a child, I got so sick that after a year of seeing military doctors, I had to be flown down to Perth to see a specialist. Upon arriving at the doctors office, he told my mother, that if I wasn't an American citizen of American parents, he would make me a ward of the state. (Not his exact words, but you get the idea)

 

The Australian doctor treated me and 2 weeks later, I was well. After a year of being sick. That is how the US Government runs healthcare.

 

Correct, you pay much higher taxes, people who live in a socialist society pay more then 50-60% in taxes, so you are paying for it. Socialist societies do not have any incentive to really progress as a society, because no matter what they do, the government takes so much of the money, most people just say screw it, why try there is not much more i would be getting out of the venture of really exceeding and creating something with better value.

 

There is a reason, why we are the leading country for pretty much everything. Our capitalist society gives incentive to do better things and make the best possible item that can be made. This goes for health care as well...With that being said, there are many things wrong with how we are running the country now, which is a completely different topic and discussion.

 

The way I look at it is, if you do not like how our country is doing things, drive north to Canada and see if that whole socialist world is that much greater, let me know how the health care works out for you...Or better yet, head south and live in the non-tourist parts and see what Mexico is truly like...Our country is not doing things the best way and we have our mistakes, but I would not live anywhere else, but here. No country will ever be perfect and truly ideal...

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But that shouldn't keep us from striving for perfect and ideal.

I agree with this to point, but it is truly subjective, what may be ideal and perfect for one person is not the same for the other...Plus we has humans tend to always think the grass is greener on the other side and then we get over there and we see another fence and the grass is greener over there. It is a never ending process. ...I just think sometimes, people complain a whole bunch, but never really live in the reality that the country they live in is not perfect or ideal, and possibly the grass is not greener on the other side. There are lots of things I would change about this country, but that does not mean I take it for granted.

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Yes the problems with socialized medicine are as follows: increased taxes which probably won't affect the lower income levels as much as the people that make the most money(the ones that are able to provide most of the jobs for the lower income level people), incompatent doctors, and long waits to get care. But after a couple of months you will be able to get something to help you with your cold that ran its course after a couple of weeks. These problems are the same everywhere that has socialized medicine.

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