Sicko

Well, I finally got around to watching Sicko by Michael Moore - a very disturbing documentary on health care in America. Being that I work in health care, I am not entirely surprised, but once again wholly disappointed and very upset at the state of things here in the States vs. other industrialized nations. HMOs are not the most efficient or cheapest, or even a good way of taking care of health care in America. There is story after story you hear about how big, rich HMOs or health insurance companies constantly deny patients needed care because it's expensive. Saddly in Sicko, there are also people interviewed who worked for HMOs and the like in the past letting us know they were actually given bonuses, more rewards, raises, incentives, etc when they denied more people the health care they needed. It's a travesty that in our very wealthy nation, hardly anyone can obtain good health care when they have an expensive disease unless they are too poor and on Medicare/Medical/Medicaid, etc.

If you search the web, you'll also find a lot of articles talking about the same sad story - we're last place in health care among industrialized nations! LAST! Here's an article that talks about this very issue: http://www.livescience.com/health/080108-health-care.html
And here's another about the expense versus the quality: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/business/17health.html

I only hope that something can be done about the sad situation. Part of the problem is that the AMA (American Medical Association - the very rich doctors) have the largest lobby group in Washington and often get what they want in Washington as a result. They helped very much to defeat the Universalized health care plan put before congress back in the beginning of Clinton's presidency.

Read up for yourself and see the movie if you wish, but please - contact your congressmen/women and don't let our voices be un-heard. Let's try to make a change in the sorry state of health care in this county.