Michael Moore's Sicko

David,

http://www.harvardpilgrim.org/portal/page?_pageid=213,38310&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

This url seems to be available to non- members and lists, prices and categorizes many drugs. For example, if you click DRUG CATEGORY LOOKUP, and select CARDIOVASCULAR, it shows 23 different ACE inhibitors arranged in three price tier groupings.

Alternately there are only 7 ARBs, with none in the lowest priced tier 1.

Regards, Don

Ironically, I was just in Toronto, doing business, and the wife of the CEO I was visiting woke with terrible stomach pain. 14 hours later, she still was waiting in the emergency room. The wife of our print broker had already waited 6 months for surgery - we discussed this over lunch while the CEO waited for word from his wife. Moore, like the scenes of Saadam's Palace in his 911 film, paints the most unrealistic picture of socialized medicine one can imagine. Let's be frank. If you are providing a service to everyone, at "no" cost, then like all government programs you will have too much demand, too little product, stifling regulations, and a product "like public education", that is dumbed down to the lowest denominator. Worse, and hidden, is the effect on future bright young minds considering medicine. They won't.

Comparisons with Al Gore's "Convenient Fiction" are less useful. While Moore at least sheds light on some of the many imperfections of our system (still vastly superior to the reality of socialized systems), Gore fabricates nonsense and hyperbole into something grossly innacurate. It was not only not oscar-worthy, it wouldn't even pass a kindergarden fact check.

Ultimately, we will likely need some type of 2-tier system. "Free" access to those without funds, higher access to those with. But we must never get so hung up on the uninsured that we forget where real medicine comes from - young men and women willing to dedicate years of their lives to learn an in-depth profession and expect some degree of autonomy and reward.

I remember in Junior High being force-fed Alvin Tofler's "Future Shock". A book filled with page after page of Al Gore type Nostradamian predictions. 30 years later, all the predictions look silly.

Gore looks silly now...

I'm sure the Cuban Government was delighted to have the chance to extol the virtues of their health care and, at the same time, embarass the U.S. While the film crews were there, I'm sure the group with Moore received the highest priority and the best care possible. I wonder how well their system works for the average Cuban once the cameras are gone?

This film, as is typical of Moore's work, is full of lies and distortions. I am Canadian, and Moore's claim that no one waits more than 45 minutes for ER treatment is just completely false. I live just north of Toronto (five miles), in a relatively prosperous suburb. On Friday morning a week ago, I had chest pains in the early morning (6 am), so I went directly to the ER, arriving at about 6:30 am. I wasn't sent to an exam room until 9:30 am, and wasn't actually seen by a doctor until 10:30. That's a FOUR HOUR wait, not 45 minutes. When I was sent to the exam room at 9:30, the ER waiting room was full, and the triage nurse was telling new patients they could expect a SEVEN HOUR wait before being seen - and this was a Friday morning, which is typically a "light" time in the ER. If you come by at, say, 11 pm on a Friday or Saturday night, you might experience a ten hour wait, depending on the severity of your problem. There have been numerous occasions in the past five years when Toronto area hospitals put their ER's on "diversion", which means they are essentially closed, and ambulances are sent to the next nearest hospital. This often starts a cascade effect, with one ER after another going on diversion, and hapless patients being driven in ambulances for hours at a time, trying to find an open ER.

Just as Moore pretended he didn't meet with GM chairman Roger Smith in "Roger and Me" (Smith did meet with Moore, but the scene never made the film), or that he was handed a shotgun immediately after opening a bank account in "Bowling for Columbine" (he had to pass a background check and a 3-day waiting period), he again tells outright lies to make his biased political points. Anyone who believes what Moore has to say without doing some investigation on their own deserves to be misled by this overstuffed, lying sack of horse excrement.

Like many things in life there are sometimes 2 or 3 or more sides to a story. At least Mr. Mendosa lets us know he is a Concerative. The 50 million Americans without health insurance, some can get free care based on income. But many layed off or over 50 year old workers can not afford $500.00 per month for insurance. Those who can afford to pay, many times are turned down for prior conditions.

Who are these uninsured? Some were layed off because our Corporations and government sees a cost benefit in sending work overseas, Some are widows with small children, some are my brother vets who are waiting at least 180 days to see a VA doctor.

Why are we in this mess? Surely some patients are abusing the system, Hospitals are now profit centers; the most proitable are the cancer centers, Drug companies look to maximize profits & CEO salaries, doctors seem to believe if they are not make $200,000.00 + a year they are a failure.

Do we, as a country, really want to let our sick die becase of money? Do we really want to give better medical care to prisoners, do we really want to heal terrorists with our best medical professionals?

You said California is looking into Universal Health. Our governor is only doing this because of the Federal governments failure.

Instead of being for or against National Health we need to stop all the BS. We need a Harry Truman to do what he did in WW2 when sonme corporations were overcharging for war materials.

Mr. Mendosa, with your connections, you should start an honest dialog. We need to bug or replace our lobbist congress people.

Efforts to address growing diabetes concerns among African-Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans suffered a major setback most recently in California when Assemblymember and Appropriations Committee Chair Mark Leno killed a diabetes bill that hoped to help alleviate this growing public health crisis. The bill was an expressed priority of the California Democrat Legislative Black Caucus. After listening to extensive information on the increasing diabetes epidemic and the disproportionate suffering from diabetes it in minority communities Leno, with the authority as Chair of the Appropriations Committee, still moved to kill the bill by placing the bill in suspense file.

             In the late 1990s California experienced a 60% increase in diabetes among the adult population. In tandem with national trends, it is California’s minority populations who suffer in the highest numbers from this diabetes epidemic and obesity. The bill, which was brought forth by Mervyn M Dymally Legislative Black Caucus Chair and Assemblymember from Compton, presented to Leno and the committee the disproportionate statistics and immediate health concerns of diabetes effecting minority communities. Dymally explained that 10.3% of African American, 9.3% of Native Americans, and 6.0% of Latinos suffer from diabetes and obesity compared with 5.6% of whites and 4.7% of Asian Pacific Islander communities. For those diagnosed with diabetes health related problems can be very serious including high blood pressure, blindness, heart disease, and even fatalities. Moreover, minority communities suffer the highest number of diabetes related deaths compared with the general population of those diagnosed with diabetes.

            The bill, that Leno effectively made sure would never be enacted, proposed to study the factors and causes contributing to high rates of diabetes and obesity in Latinos, African-Americans, and Native Americans in this country, starting with California. The bill would further have called for a task force to prepare a report containing recommendations on how to reduce instances of diabetes and such debilitating conditions among these ethnic groups. Dymally as Chair of the Legislative Black Caucus expressed his deep concern and dismay over Leno’s actions in the Appropriations Committee in killing the bill.

Those opposed to Michael Moore's film are wearing rose colored glasses regarding our system here. Emergency rooms close due to saturation continously. Recently a patient died in the waiting room.

 

My daughter is charge nurse in a private hospital in a nice Los Angeles suburb.  One of the doctors there has his own reality television show. These are good people who just can't keep up with work load .  My daughter mentioned her interest in working at the HMO system that Hillary Clinton identified as the best model for the country.  She was told she would be unhappy there as it was boring because they just don't get the level of sick people seen outside of that system.  As a patient I vote for healthy and boring.

I assume, David, your co pay was a third tier pay. My third tier payment is $170. And our Medicare drug coverage bascially stops after $2400 is spent by us and the insurance company. I don't think 2400 is enough to cover your byetta.

 

I have not seen the film, tho have read many commentaries about it. Regardless of how one feels about national insurance coverage for all, it is obvious that our present health care system is in a shambles, with profit overruling all other considerations, including what is best for the patient.

 

Is it unheard of that a person chooses medicine as their field because they want to help people find a better quality of life, rather than they want to be part of a corporation and take home half a million dollars a year? Where are the men and women who used to care so much and were satisfied with enough money to live reasonably?

 

 

David, last year I fell into the hole in July, took out a zero percent interest card just for medication purchases. Still paying it off, and have to roll it over into another zero percent card. This year the endo is giving me insulin and I am about 600 away from the hole. How many zero interest cards can I get?

 

Barbara Boxer wrote and told me she voted against the drug program because of this problem.

 

Before I was covered without limit on all generics, well over half my medication, plus insulin. Those few branded meds were easily available from Canada, and far less money that the 3800 you have to spend to get thru the hole.

 

I congratulate you for still working, and earning an income; however I am retired and never anticipated this kind of problem.

 

Helen