"Sicko" Campaign Asks: Who Will Fix U.S. Health Care System? (by John Nichols for The Nation)

[marmar]

BLOG | Posted 06/24/2007 @ 02:04am
"Sicko" Campaign Asks: Who Will Fix U.S. Health Care System?
John Nichols


Former newspaper and magazine editor Michael Moore's "Sicko" is a staggeringly powerful piece of journalism -- yes, journalism, in the truest sense of what the craft can and should do. What makes the documentary on the nightmarish failure of the American health care system such effective journalism is Moore's determination not merely to meticulously illustrate what is wrong with the system -- something that has been done a thousand times by a thousand media outlets, if never quite so entertainingly -- but also his certainty that there is a solution.

Like Tom Paine or Upton Sinclair, Moore is not satisfied to simply recount the crisis. He seeks to address it.

Moore's advocacy on behalf of a single-payer health care system, which he accomplishes by showing Americans what works in other countries and how, is the ingredient that makes "Sicko" essential media.

It is also what makes this film the most important political statement so far in what remains an ill-defined domestic policy debate among Democrats who propose to replace Bushism with something better. When Moore went to Capitol Hill last week to make clear his position in the health care debate, he gave the definition that was needed: drawing a "which-side-are-you-on" line for presidential candidates and party leaders to arrange themselves around.

Of course every serious candidate for president will offer a plan for reforming the nation's health care system. Even the Republicans who evidence an incomprehensible commitment to complete the mission of their party's least likely leader since Warren Harding find themselves forced to offer a reform agenda. To do otherwise would be too great a denial of reality even for the most neo of conservatives.

But Moore knows there is no need to go to the trouble of penning new policy statements. The plan that addresses the crisis his film so ardently, and so amusingly, confirms is already on paper. It has been introduced in the House and has attracted 74 cosponsors. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters?bid=45&pid=207718

[antigop]

1. Woohoo! Yes, the plan exists -- HR 676! Thanks for posting! n/t

[1776Forever]

2. Among so many atrocities thrown on our citizens this is one of the biggest and most tragic ones!

Stand firm and tell everyone you know about this vote in Congress that is coming up on H.R. 676, the United States National Health Insurance Act. Since the United States is a capitalist society it will truly be a miracle if we do ever get a not-for-profit health care program here in the U.S.

To put this in real-world terms just from my state of Florida, M.C.Moewe (Sept. 15, 2006) wrote that WellCare (Medicaid HMO) dominates Jacksonville (FL) Medicaid market. Duval and Broward (Florida) counties are at the forefront of the state's effort to privatize Medicaid, which is aimed at curbing rising Medicaid costs. Medicaid consumes about $15 billion a year, or a quarter of the state's annual budget. The pilot program in the two counties could eventually be expanded to enable more than 2 million poor and disabled Floridians to enroll in private insurance plans.

http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/othercities/jacksonville/stories/2006/09/18/story11.html?b=1158552000%5E1345021

This poorly conceived program has made 27 percent of the physicians who had participated in the new program drop out and “two thirds of these are specialists”. While 60% of the budget for HMO managed care is spent on the chronically ill, many of the studies I have read state that almost all of the proposed programs leave much to be desired when it comes to quality of care for the chronically ill.

State Roundup. (May, 2007) Getting to the Finish Line. Monthly newsletter of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families Website. Retrieved June 15, 2007 from http://ccf.georgetown.edu/finishline/may07/may07i.html

The United States spent $1.8 trillion on health care in 2004according to the Health care Reform Site and they also report there are 300 to 400 HMO organizations in the United States. The main issue is quality and everyone is asking for that kind of money why there is not better quality of health care for everyone.