Just saw the movie Sicko... It is one of the most moving that I have seen....

[BlackHawk706867]

I am a Canadian citizen, and after watching this show realize that although the Canadian Health care system isn't the best in the world, it is much better than that of our neighbors to the South. It would seem that France is probably the best for Health Care for it's citizens.
The one thing that I came away with from this movie is, American citizens need to hit the streets in protest over the lacking Health Care. Not sure how wing nut Nixon managed to get the current health care plan by the American people, but it sucks big time.

ww

[cutlassmama]

1. yes it does. I have a friend who is Dutch

and he said he just couldn't believe how bad our system was after seeing the SICKO film. He was appalled.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. I don't recall Nixon ever doing much either way on health care

I do recall, however, that I first heard the term "managed care" in connection with Hillary Clinton's ill-fated health proposals, which were deeply flawed due to being partly written by the insurance companies.

[welshTerrier2]

4. here's a link

source: http://www.rwjf.org/files/publications/books/2001/chapter_04.html

By the late 1960s, rising health care expenditures encouraged employers to make wider use of HMOs. Paul Ellwood, Jr., then an aide to President Richard Nixon, coined the term "health maintenance organization" in 1970. Ellwood, a physician, believed that restructuring the financing of health care into a capitated system that would reward providers for maintaining patients' health would improve outcomes and lower health costs. Thus, the Nixon Administration moved to develop a health policy framework around HMOs, culminating in the HMO Act of 1973. Nixon and his aides envisioned a rapid expansion of HMOs as a way to curb health inflation and redirect medical care toward preventing rather than just treating illness. The Act lifted barriers to HMO development, helping the expansion along by requiring businesses with more than 25 workers to offer an HMO option, if available, as an alternative to traditional coverage. The Act also provided grants and loans to start new HMOs.

In 1971, fewer than 4 million Americans were enrolled in nearly 40 prepaid health plans, most of which were operating in California.3 The Nixon Administration expected to create nearly 1,700 HMOs. Nixon's staff optimistically forecast that by 1980 some 90 percent of the American population would have access to an HMO.

[BlackHawk706867]

5. Yeah, it was mentioned in the movie that Nixon was the cause of the

current Health Care mess in the US....

ww

[Bitwit1234]

3. A movie house in our area got it after numerous requests.

They were overwhelmed so they ordered it.