HW 25 - Response to Sicko

Sicko Precis: We live in a country where the rich use the poor to get richer. The powers at be created a health care system that abuses the poor by overcharging them for health care that wont actually "care" for them, by implementing a privatized health care system that operate by "less care is more profit." Meanwhile in Canada they have public health care where they can walk in to a clinic anytime and get completely free health care. Here, to reattach a finger it would have cost $60,000, there it was free. In England and France it is the same thing, they operate not under, "Ask yourself what you can do for your country, but what can your country do for you."

In the part of Sicko i saw in class, Michael Moore was trying to prove that our government was being corrupted by the health care industry. Some evidence he used was :

• On Feb 17th 1971 Edward Keiser presented his "privatized health care system" to president Richard Nixon that boasted "all the incentives are towards less medical care, the less care you give them, the more money you make." The next day, Nixon called for a "new national health strategy."
• Hilary Clinton who once ran against the Health Care industry with a universal health care bill, was defeated after the HMO's spent more then $100 million, and in turn became Hilary Clinton's biggest campaign supporters.

Michael Moore believed that our government was corrupted by the privatized Health Care industry. He presented us with Nixon's meeting with Keiser Permente and the start of Private health care. Then with how one of private health cares biggest opponents became their ally by bribing her with campaign contributions. Dr. Sanjay Gupta checked in on how true Michael Moore's facts really were. One difference between the two different sets of data was that Michael Moore over stated how much waiting time there was for non-emergency surgeries outside the U.S. Moore said that it was a misconception that there were long waiting times for universal health care and then interviewed several people who agreed with him. I then did my own research to see how the two compared and learned that Moore was still off.

"We found that waiting times for an initial orthopedic consultation and for knee-replacement surgery, as measured by patient reports, were longer in Ontario than in the United States, but the differences were not as large as some might have anticipated. A substantial majority of respondents in both countries considered their` waits acceptable. "(http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199410203311607#t=articleDiscussion)

Although Moore was right on this account, i still disagree with his overall way of presenting his data. He uses fear to persuade us to join him and leave our country behind us. He rips on the government he lives on and his information isn't even 100% correct much less is it persuasive.

I don't personally like Michael Moore, I think that he aggrandizes his points by creatively and with large numbers, hypnotizes his audience by showing them things that confronts their beliefs in a non-confrontational and interesting to watch way. I personally feel that if he has such a big problem with how health care is run, then he should get the f*&k out of this country. He has gone from deep and insightful about issues like gun control and Columbine, to short and nearsighted with his arguments on health care. He does a lot of one sided research into a topic and then very loudly and obnoxiously tells everyone about it. What really angered me about this movie was how he never discussed that the English, French and Canadian citizens pay egregious taxes for their "free" health care. I think that Moore needs to broaden his approach before he begins to make another movie because the sociological effects that this movie have on people who will believe and not question every word that he speaks will just strengthen his army of mindless drones who don't understand both sides of the issue because their leader, Moore, doesn't ever present both sides of the story. I mean whatever makes for a more interesting because in the end, 50% of what you just payed is going directly into his pocket. According to Celebritynetworth.com Michael Moore was entitled to 50% of the profits from the box office release of Sicko which amounted to $24.5 million and all of the profits from the DVD sales which amounted to $17 million. So in total he walked away with $29,250,000 million, not including royalties or merchandise sales. But it puts my mind at ease to know that with all that money he can at least buy some decent health care coverage.