Letters to the Editor
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We already have "socialized" medicine!
What virtually every story such as this ignores is that we already have a model for universal healthcare right here in the U.S.--the veteran's system. Paul Krugman and others have written a lot about this. The veteran's healthcare system is very efficient, provides high-quality care, and is cost-effective. There have been lots of studies that confirm this (Walter Reed Hospital, I should note, is not run by the veteran's administration, but by the Army). If we really wanted to move to universal healthcare, we could do it without having to reinvent the wheel. The real question is whether politicians have the courage to go against the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.
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Dreaming on
curmudgeon 2 wrote:
"The secret of good health is careful avoidance of the medical system, except in cases of acute and life-threatening sickness. The system is actually pretty good at taking care of those problems."
You are freaking dreaming! The "system" (if it can be dignified by that name) is designed to avoid those problems and largely DENY care. HMOs now find cause to deny care for any acute problem IF they can find the most remote "cause" that Mr or Mrs X didn't fully report ALL background health problems. If they just left out a sneezing fit ten yrs. ago they can now be denied care.
In addition, your careful avoidance scenario really only works for ten percent of problems if that. It doesn't work if your employer doesn't confer benefits and co-workers bring in some horrible form of rotavirus, or flu - and you are already terribly susceptible because of emphysema or whatever. It doesn't work also if someone with MRSA comes in contact with you and transfers the bug to you.
It doesn't work if you are driving carefully and are then rear ended or otherwise hit by a drunk driver, who causes such extensive damage you end up with tens of thousands in hospital bills.
It doesn't work if you or a loved one are a victim of a drive by, because some fool or fools are unloading weapons indisciminately. It doesn't work if you go to a restaurant, and the food was contaminated by E Coli and now you must pay the piper for yourself or a loved one to get back to decent health.
"Avoidance" works nicely if you never eat out, never go out and do anything or drive anywhere. In other words, a rich dork living in a gated castle some place.
When you refer to "corrupt people" also kindly keep it in focus. It is NOT "throughout society" but mainly at the upper, privileged level of predators - the rich fucks who think they are entitled to any and everything. These are the ones who need to be cut down to size. There is no widespread "corrupt culture" there IS a corrupt segment- mostly those already in the upper 0.00001% of income who are peeling off $15.6 million a year in Bush tax cuts. (According to the Economic Policy Inst/.)
Lastly, who is going to "punish" the ne'er do wells? Well, who meted out punishment to the cast of investment scheisters? The same way punishment could be meted to those pirates, it CAN be meted out to health care pirates. All that is needed is the will to do so.
I also keep hearing this bunkum about the divergent population of the U.S. making it "impossible" to have single payer health care. This is just another bloody excuse, but which the weak minded buy. Steffi Woolhandler and David U. Himmelstein shot that down in their 'Health Affairs' journal article published in August, 2002.
The recent incident of a woman left to die in the hallway of an LA hospital ought to be a wake up call for every right minded American. In no civilized nation with advanced pretensions could such an incident occur - but we see it does occur in barbaric ones, like the U.S., which health care based on profit.
It is time to fucking wake up and stop making damnable excuses for the "system" to act like a vampire or parasite for the most vulnerable.
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Population Doesn't Kill, Politicians Do
The population of a country has nothing to do with whether or not a country can provide health care. But it does take a government committed to making it work. When you have a country with people the likes of Bill Frist writing laws as pertaining to health care you're going to be in trouble. My god, there is a doctor who dared to diagnose Terry Shivo by watching a video of her- and he got the diagnosis wrong!
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HYpocritical is ia dufass
Oh Bull sh**t HYPROCRITICAL. I work in the film business and if you are working and editing non union jobs no one pays for your health insurance. If you are doing union jobs you have insurance.
You are a fu**ing weasel.Your friends are obviousely non union workers and non union workers do not get healthcare. Judging from your stupidity I would assume your friends were hired to be assisatants. And assistants do not have to be union and no production company ever paid health insurance to non union workers. Another reason to have universal health care wouldn't you say?. If they are union then they have insurance. You are the perfect person who should see Sicko because getting second hand info from your whinny friends has skewed the truth , the exact situation we are in regarding the health care in the US. Skewed truth.
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Hypocritical? Check your facts!
"I've not seen Moore's latest film, but I do know this: two of my friends were offered editing jobs which they turned down. Why? Not only did he want to pay them nearly half of their regular day rate, he would not offer them health insurance! (thankfully they were in a position to turn him down, but others probably weren't.) How can he draw attention to a problem while simultaneously contribute to it?? Providing health insurance is standard in the film industry.
These statements are made by someone who has no clue how the film industry operates.
To say that insurance in the film industry is standard is completely and utterly false. I am a member of IATSE Local 700, which is MPEG, the Motion Picture Editors Guild. You only get insurance if you work on a union picture, plain and simple. Of the 13 films I worked on in 2006 and the 9 I've worked on so far this year, only 5 of them were union pictures. Guess what that means! No insurance! And many high-profile people who work in film get no insurance at all - ever. Ever hear of film composers? No insurance. Ever hear of Production Assistants? No insurance.
Unless you are working on a project for one of the majors like Fox, Sony, Warner, Paramount/Dreamworks, or Universal (and even then it's not guaranteed), the chances are you are NOT getting any insurance. I have done many shows for Weinstein, who is responsible for Sicko. Not one of those shows I did for them were union.
I'm not exactly sure of the particulars, but in a nutshell, the majors are the only ones who pay into MPIPH, which is the Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plan. They pay something like 33% on top our billed rates for these so-called "fringes" that include insurance. Those of us who are part of one of the unions have to work 600 hours in a year to qualify for our insurance and then 300 hours every six months to keep said insurance. 300 hours may not sound like much, but let me tell you that even with 300+ days worked in a year, I usually just barely clear 300 - 400 union hours in six months. A vast majority of my colleagues never come close to working enough qualifying hours.
All this just further illustrates the need for universal coverage. It also shows that you should really check your facts before posting such utter second-hand nonsense.