Comments on: Movie Reviews

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 16:32:11 +0000

A lot of people would love to be on a waiting list knowing that they would get treatment and not suffer bankruptcy because of it.

yep.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 15:58:11 +0000

Hipparchia, the waiting times in Canada are dependent on your province, because the Canadian system isn’t national, but provincial. The waiting times in Yellow Knife are obviously going to be different than Ottawa.

A lot of people would love to be on a waiting list knowing that they would get treatment and not suffer bankruptcy because of it.

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 05:55:22 +0000

I’ve heard a lot about those infamous waiting times. The Fraser Institute has publised several reports on the waiting times in Canada. What I’ve never seen in anybody’s analyses, though, is how they calculate the “waiting times” for the 40+ million uninsured people who can’t even get on a waiting list in the first place. I’m thinking that 40,000,000 x infinity is a mighty big number.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 14:19:33 +0000

The Blue Cross/Blue Shield system in Rochester/Monroe County, New York, when I lived there was great. Nearly everyone had it, at the same price. College students had it, paid for by their student fees. Public school kids had it. You could pay for it yourself. Businesses of any size had it. You went to any doctor, and any of the three hospitals.

The secret was that almost everyone had it, so the risk was spread and the cost stayed low. People went to the doctor, not the emergency room. Things were caught early.

In the emergency rooms, the first questions were about the reason you were there, not your ability to pay.

It isn’t like that anymore. The system has collapsed as the industrial base, Kodak, Delco, Xerox, has collapsed. No it has all of the problems of every other place in the country.

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 08:23:20 +0000

“The providers dance to the tune of the insurance companies, …” – Bryan

And that is manifestly NOT necessary! There was a time, earlier in the 20th century, when insurance was a progressive idea, and its consequences were, on the whole, beneficial to our healthcare system. How things have changed. Now it’s entirely and only about insurance company profits. I don’t even know any medical personnel, doctors or nurses, who are happy about matters, let alone any consumers of healthcare services… that would be every blessed one of us.

I suppose that in an era of unbridled crony “capitalism,” there is no good thing that cannot be perverted to society’s detriment… and someone’s unconscionable profit.

I wish I could continue to afford my private medical insurance, but unless I find additional work fairly soon, I shall join America’s vast number of uninsured people. I’m not thrilled about the prospect.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 22:40:41 +0000

The providers dance to the tune of the insurance companies, so if you change that part of the system, the whole system will change.

By: andante

andante — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 22:28:25 +0000

That headline irritated the hell out of me.

It’s okay for the White House to say anything they want and the media will carve it in stone without checking those pesky ‘facts’. But let Michael Moore make a movie and suddenly they are Diogenes?

The truth is – Moore didn’t have to make up any horror stories. You can find them in any gathering of people at any income level. Our for-profit health care system not only sucks, it’s killing people and destroying the economy.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 20:10:12 +0000

It’s more that the companies suck, as they have followed Kaiser-Permanente in emphasizing profits over all other considerations.

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 06:16:50 +0000

i haven’t seen the movie [and likely won’t, since i already agree with him] but i was under the impression that moore thinks that private insurance sucks rotten eggs, and that he was on a mission to demonstrate this fact.