I just watched Sicko and I'm shocked!

[jeff30997]

Hi.I'm a French-Canadian and before watching Michael Moore's

movie I already knew that the

American health care system was rothen...

But I had no idea...I mean...It's horrible!

I've been on DU for over 3 years and I made a lot

of American friends here.On 9-11 I was devastated!

Fahrenheit 911 was a great movie but with Sicko,

Michael Moore made me discover things I really

didn't have a clue about!

In that movie Mike made me laugh,think and

cry like a baby.Gee! I believe this is

his best movie ever and I understand why

the scumbags wanted to censure him.

I sincerely hope that health care will

improve in the US because right now it's

disgusting!

I give you a big hug my American friends!


-Jeff

[Kiouni]

1. Yep, I want to move to Canada.

And I work in health care! This whole system is f***ed up!

[orleans]

2. thanks jeff. i'm going to see the movie tomorrow. thanks for the hug. n/t

[pnwmom]

3. Thank you, Jeff.

Always glad to meet people who haven't given up on Americans yet, despite our nasty government.

[Maat]

4. Thanks, Jeff, for the hug.

We're going to try and use the movie's premiere to turn things around in California (get Sheila Kueh's bill passed); it would be a start.

[Fovea]

5. Merci, Jeff

I can't imagine being able to afford health care.
over a quarter of my income goes just to maintain being diabetic,hypertensive,
and suffering pain from stroke.

I will probably die while trying to decide wether to go to the hospital or not.
Ironic for someone who spent 12 years of their life working in them.

Our health care system is a mirror of our society-- greed driven, cruel, exclusive,
and somehow despite glaring evidence to the contrary, still convinced of its superiority.

I fear the collapse of both, but am beginning to fear the agonizingly slow disintegration more than the catastrophic
failure.

[jeff30997]

12. Dear realpolitik I'm speechless!

I wish you the best! I really cried in the last

part of the movie!It was so...Well Mike showed how

some peoples and organizations could be extremely cruel!!!

[lapislzi]

21. Brilliant, brilliant quote, realpolitik

>>Our health care system is a mirror of our society-- greed driven, cruel, exclusive,
and somehow despite glaring evidence to the contrary, still convinced of its superiority.<<

You are so right.

I hope you receive the treatment you need. I am lucky that I have no health problems right now. An accident or serious illness would devastate me financially. My choices would be to lose my home or to die quietly in it.

[tblue37]

22. I actually HAVE good health insurance.

Two years ago, when I was much poorer than I am now, I had a TIA (a small "stroke" that doesn't do permanent damage). My right side went floppy and useless on me. I didn't have any cash in the house to pay for a cab and didn't own a car. I wasn't able to walk the 4 blocks to the store, becuase my right side wasn't up to it at all. It was midsummer, and all of my friends in this university town were gone. I couldn't call the amblane, because even with good insurance, it would have cost hundreds of dollars, and I knew I would never be able to afford that. I called frantially until I reached a friend in Kansas City (45 minutes away) who then left work and came to drive me to the emergency room. He finally located my sister (also in KC), who came in to be available to take me home, so my friend could go back to work.

After all the tests and follow-up doctor visits (MRI, EKG, cardiac stress test, etc.) and the emergency room visit, I ended up owing co-pays totaling to about$1000. It took me almost 2 years to pay it all off. If I had called an ambulance it would have been even more.

And this is with better than average insurance!

[Fovea]

32. I am so glad you fully recovered.

Having a stroke is as not as much fun as it looked in the brochure.

[Turn CO Blue]

25. I'm crying now. "Our health care system is a mirror of our society

Such sad, sad, achingly sad words. We don't care about poor or uninsured people.

My mother was in a county hospital in Ft. Worth at the end of her days (with no insurance and COPD and lung cancer at a hospital I later found out had a horrible reputation) and that hospital was a complete HELLHOLE. I know all county hospitals are not like this, but THIS one is dirty and everyone was grumpy, with little training in handling the terminally ill or how to handle hospice situations. A HELLHOLE. Gunshots and other trauma they are probably good at, but longterm illnesses just aren't their thing.

I was sitting quietly in the corner of the hospital room one day, and a tech came in and started belittling/berating the patient in the next bed. She was startled when I interrupted her. I felt so paralyzed with rage, and she was paralyzed with fear because she had been caught being vicious. And I kept thinking, this is how they are going to treat my mother when I'm not here - so I never left her side for the long days after that - I slept in chairs and rarely bathed, and I had to fight with them all the time to be able to stay with her whenever they changed room. At times I became like that character in "Terms of Endearment" screaming "just give her the fucking medicine, give her the medicine!" It was an ordeal, and I was surprised how quickly a normally well-spoken, professional-acting person like me could be reduced to a ranting, rabid individual when faced with surly hospital staff. We would point out they they needed to wash their hands (they were very sloppy about that) and they would threaten to have us removed... things like that were a common occurence.

And then some 10 days after that my family decided it was enough. We "kidnapped" my mom to take her to a very fancy private hospital (to hell with the costs) and the county hospital staff were heckling us and all trying to find security to stop us from leaving and then the administrative staff were going to bring security to physically restrain us from leaving, and then the doctors came and lectured and lectured us and then the doctor on duty signed a horrific "leaving against medical advice order" which was an out-and-out mean, vindictive move designed to prevent my mother from being able to claim Medicaid for any further medical care elsewhere. He outright said that he was going to make this move hard on us.

It was the single most stressful situation in my life, with sharp pains shooting up and down my legs and back and my whole body was physically shaking. My adrenaline gave me super strength, so I literally RAN as fast as I could pushing my mom as fast as possible in a stolen wheelchair - running to throw her into our "getaway" car waiting at the entrance. It was horrible, horrible, horrible.

And my mother was in severe pain, because the staff at the crappy hospital had refused to give her any pain medicine the whole morning once they got wind we were freakin' leaving - another vindictive move and they viciously threw that in my face, telling me it was my fault she was rocking in pain - if I wasn't going to leave with her, then she could have had her morphine. So the ride to the other hospital was the longest 40 minutes of my life - where time stood still and my thoughts and fears were in color before my face and every sound and moan my mother made was amplified to 100 decibels in my drumming ears...and then... it was like warmth and sunshine all of the sudden. We pulled up to the the private, expensive hospital, where one of my aunts worked. And there were FOUR oncology nurses including the Floor Nurse waiting for us at the front door with a portable oxygen canister and a wheelchair for my mother. And they knew her name already, and put her gently in the chair, and were speaking comfort to her -- and speaking comfort to all of us who had been in the car.

They rolled her straight to her pre-assigned room (you can do the paperwork later) and there was a surgical team and machines waiting in her room, and they installed a permanent IV in her chest right there with a portable surgical unit within 10 minutes of arriving because they knew proactively that her poor black and blue arms couldn't take anymore IVs. And then they gave her Dilaudid instead of morphine saying, "We know how to take care of cancer patients here, morphine isn't very effective with this stage of cancer". And then they left within 20 minutes but it was like a Nascar pit team had taken over to get her comfortable, and she was left there in the cleanest, quietest, most serene room with a very pretty lilac and purple color scheme, and she had a new gown, and was on oxygen, and had a catheter, and was propped up on pristine white pillows ...then she was quietly telling me that she finally felt comfortable for the first time in a year before she drifted off to sleep.

I know my aunt (a nurse there) had to pull in every string and every favor ever owed her to get my uninsured mom admitted to private cancer hospital like that. But my mom spent her last week and a half in comfort. But how many other uninsured people have not had that option and were given less than expert amenities and care? Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? I can't stand it! Good medical care is a necessity like shelter and water...

Thanks for reading,
tcb

[Fovea]

31. In a sea of horrorific stories

this one stands out.

The treatment of the dying is so essential to how we see ourselves. You story reflects on a system gone feral, like Solzhenitzen's Soviet 'hospitals'.

The words that frame this situation seem to me to be 'dehumanizing' - 'inhumane' - 'depraved'.
This period willl go into the history books in a very unflattering way. In a better world, children will ask their parents how anything like this could have happened in America.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

6. edited, because we need our system exposed and thanks.

It's all in the fine print. MKJ

[rwheeler31]

7. Thank you.

[Imagevision]

8. jeff! - tell us, was Hillary Clinton footage portrayed in a bad light???

[emilyg]

9. Thank you ami

[BlooInBloo]

10. I get the feeling we'll be seeing a lot of posts like this in the coming weeks.

[Seedersandleechers]

11. My mother was born and raised in Montreal

then moved to the US. Sometimes I have fantasies on what life would have been like had she not relocated. Of course back then the French were repressed by the British. Do a lot of French there still dislike Americans? I wish Quebec could be their own county...

[Canuckistanian]

20. Quebec is part of Canada - always will be

Quebec's attempted separation was one of the most bitter disputes in Canada. Please don't wish that on us.

[Seedersandleechers]

23. With all due respect

I only say that because of the stories my Mom talked about. She said her brothers could never get a promotion-that if a better job were available it would go to the British. If that is no longer the situation then I retract my wish..Peace.

[Canuckistanian]

26. The situation has absolutely been reversed

Quebec has not been dominated by unilingual English powers since the 1960s.

[Seedersandleechers]

30. Thanks, I did not know that.

Actually, the inuits (if that is what they are called) in Northern Quebec are probably better off with the benefits that only a whole Canada can provide. Again, thank you for enlightening me...

[Missy Vixen]

13. Merci beaucoup, Jeff

Here's a big hug from an American. I love your country. We're lucky enough to live close to the border, so before the Bush years, we'd even cross into Vancouver for dinner on the weekends.

In the meantime, please know that the vast majority of our country wants friendship with Canada, no matter what the boneheads at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue think.

Julie

[jeff30997]

15. Oh boy! Now I'm turning red!

Merci beaucoup to you chere Mademoiselle! Kisses on each cheeks!:pals:

[Swamp Rat]

14. Merci beaucoups mon ami de la Nouvelle-Orléans.

:hug:

Mon art ici:
www.swamp-rat.com

[Elwood P Dowd]

16. I've watched it twice.

Maybe it's because I have no health insurance, but I believe that if this film doesn't wake up the American people, nothing will. It's that powerful.

[Vidar]

17. Canada, even under the vile Harper, is a 1000 times better than the US.

[crappyjazz]

18. Fellow Canadian

who was also shocked by Sicko ... Jeff? were you like me? thanking your lucky stars for our system here? even though I've bitched about it numerous times or complained about taxes, I never will again, not after seeing what Americans are really having to put up with and dying because of. It's inexplicable to me and probably will be to any Canadian that sees it.

I was so proud as I walked to work yesterday and saw a small group of students handing out leaflets on the street advertising Sicko which opens here tonight at our one Cineplex.

I'm another Canadian who hasn't given up on her American friends because of Bush, we care about you despite him :)

[jeff30997]

36. I'm right with you crappyjazz !

:hi:

[B Calm]

19. Sicko is not playing around here yet. Not even in a 50 mile radius!

[marlakay]

27. Same here I would have to travel 3 hrs to Seattle

to see it and when I put in search only one place in all of seattle has it. I hope more places open up as I don't have time to go over the pass this week.

[Javaman]

24. Man I so miss Canada. I spent a good part of my summers up there as a kid. nt

[Larissa238]

28. I was tearing up as well

And I knew some things to expect. I worked at a county hospital in Los Angeles, and there were stories now and then of people dying in the ER while waiting for treatment. You can be waiting up to 24 hours easily.

I also had a friend get into a car crash, and didn't have insurance and ended up there. I had to go to the ward, dressed in my lab coat with hospital ID to make sure he got his meds (in case you are wondering, no I'm not a doctor, I was a lab tech... but it looked the same as the doctor's). My friend got lucky also because he landed in a ward I had worked in, so I knew the nursing staff as well. Because of that, he got decent care.

When I worked there, they had 1 other person doing vital signs, answering calls and giving out food (2 including me) for a ward of about 20 people. The nursing staff normally was neck deep in paperwork and too busy to help. People were grouped 4-6 to a room, and the single rooms were for troublemakers and contagious people. I saw them do a "procedure" in a patient's dirty room (they cut a guy open and removed a cyst a quarter of an inch under the skin) while the guy was choking back screams because the anesthesia was not working.

No, I didn't work at MLK hospital, which from what I hear, is worse. I shudder to think about that.

I'm in Miami now, and with my insurance now I can go to a "nice" hospital. But I know that stuff like that goes on in poor hospitals in America. Health care needs to be changed *NOW*. You can bet if the rich were forced to have this same treatment, they would have voted in Single Payer a long time ago.

[mdmc]

29. peace and low stress jeff

we will check it out tonight

[jeff30997]

37. Mmmmmmm...low stress....

I don't know what I would give for that!

[earth mom]

33. The most disgusting part of U.S. Health Care is some people don't think everyone deserves it.

:puke:


I like what Michael Moore said on The View-which was something to the effect that the police and fire departments don't have to be profitable, so why does Health Care? And to which I will add the comment that how would people feel if only "some" of the population were entitled to police or fire protection? Hmm? The sh*t would hit the fan over that one no doubt! :grr:

[Shallah Kali]

34. Trillions wasted on WMDs, Star Wars, Haliburton & their ilk to protect against a possible event

but many of the same people wanting to spend more and more to protect them from the boogymen in their heads begrudge every penny spent on kids and the elderly. They can find it in their wallets to pay for worthless crap like Star Wars but have no problems with a poor kid dying from an infected tooth. I really don't know how the human race has survived this long.

[Donnachaidh]

35. and the insurance companies are playing that up

We've had ads were it was inferred that their insurance was *better* because you could pay *just* for your own insurance, and not have to worry about those *sickies* dragging you down.

We need to take insurance companies OUT of the health care business. And shut DOWN hmo's that do nothing except line the pockets of shareholders.

[mdmc]

38. thanks for the hug

peace and low stress to you.:kick: