Precis:
50 million people in America do not have health insurance, however Michael Moore wants to criticize the health care system itself and the problems with it despite having insurance. Health care insurance in the U.S do not cover all costs and works hard in finding excuses not to pay. The system doesn’t really ‘care’ for the people, since it is a business in goals of achieving massive profit. In fact, the system used money to destroy Hillary Clinton’s health care plan and succeeded. Michael Moore than presents an alternative, where in places like Canada and Europe, there is a universal health care system for all people.
Evidence:
Specific Pieces of evidence to support his thesis (The U.S health care system is inadequate):
* The Health care system maximizes denial reasons to gain profit. Examples of reasons to decline coverage would be: 'pre-existing conditions',ambulance emergencies,some cancer,heart disease, and diabetes.
* During Bush's administration, the government paid the elderly to get prescription through pharmaceuticals but the elderly ended up paying more.
These two pieces of evidence supports his thesis of how the U.S health care system is inadequate and is lacking to help the sick. The first piece of evidence gives an example of how the system is all about profit-motive moreso than the emotional devotion to cure and help more people. This is precisely why the system is so poor in their job, because the people are only in for the money when massive amounts of money should be used to help the ill. The second piece of evidence shows a sense of betrayal. The reform prescription under Bush's administration seemed to be supportive of the elderly, when really it was a system to have the elderly spend more money. The system is not only money obsessive, but manipulative and unfair.
Fact Check:
On CNN's fact check that I had to examine, it was stated in the interview that health care is not necessarily 'free' in places Sicko said it was. (France, Britain)The people there pay higher tax rates in the U.S. This was something Moore neglected to mention as he praised the health care system where it was provided for 'free.'
From doing some research, I can tell Michael Moore neglected the negative aspects of the health care system in other areas:
"So far France has been able to hold down the burden on patients through a combination of price controls and increased government spending, but the latter effort has led to higher taxes for both employers and workers. In 1990, 7% of health-care expenditures were financed out of general revenue taxes, and the rest came from mandatory payroll taxes. By 2003, the general revenue figure had grown to 40%, and it's still not enough. The French national insurance system has been running constant deficits since 1985 and has ballooned to $13.5 billion."
(Quote from: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_28/b4042070.htm)
This quote shows that the French Health Care system in which Moore spoke as an example of the best system, wasn't a perfect system. The U.S. insurace companies can definitly learn a lesson or two from France, but I think Moore should have mentioned these facts that I found. Watching the film, I thought something was odd about how Michael Moore made other health care systems so wonderful and where all the money to care all these ill people came from. It's from the high taxes.
Just to make sure I found another site that says, "Finally, no discussion of highly taxed nations would be complete without including France. With a top marginal tax rate on average workers of about 40% (and a top tax on high-income workers of nearly 50%), France is long-known for sacrificing economic growth to social benefits handed out by government."
This makes complete sense now, and why the people in France seem to have so many 'benefits.'
Sources:
The French Lesson in Health care: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_28/b4042070.htm
12 Countries with the Highest & LowestTax Rates: http://www.businesspundit.com/12-countries-with-the-highest-lowest-tax-rates/
Response:
In general, I thought the movie Sicko was interesting, while it was very one-sided and was a complete propaganda. I found the film touching and provacative. I can tell Moore just wanted to throw in a bunch of facts to support his views on the flaws of the U.S health care system even though it was random and out of order. I knew that in a Capitalist system, everyone always has a profit-motive in mind and health care is just another form of business-I just didn't know how bad it was. The list of reasons to decline covering for costs struck me the most. He made the people in France (and other places) seem happy and shook their heads when asked about the system in the U.S. The film made me think twice about our health care system and the flaws that come with it.
Even though Moore failed to voice the other side of his argument to make himself sound justified throughout: the film definitly made me think and question about the dominant social practices around the unit. In our society, we as people want to believe that the government and these health insurance companies will provide us all the care because they really want to 'help' us. I think illness and dying in our society is taken as a 'business' because clearly no company wants to spend money on illness and diseases that are costly. This is wrong, but it is the truth that I have to deal with. Perhaps before watching the film and learning about the unit, I was narrow-minded on the sensitive topic: why would companies under the Capitalist system care about people they don't know if its going to cost billions of dollars?
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