We watched Michael Moore's Sicko yesterday, which is a movie about him looking at the problems with the American healthcare system and comparing them to European countries like England and France as well as Cuba.

  It was interesting, but I had previously watched the Frontline special that had covered the same thing, but had the perspective of talking to the finance ministers about the economic impact of these programs and how they are unsustainable.  Which Michael Moore fails to cover in his documentary.

  I'm not anti Michael Moore, I've read his book and some of his movies are funny.  But I think he glossed over too many counter arguments in this latest movie to only showcase what he thought people deserved and ignored the reasons why it doesn't exist today.  Which is free healthcare.

  I happen to work with a guy from Wales.  (Which is in the UK if you didn't know.)   And I asked him today, "If you were diagnosed with something serious, would you go back home to England and get treated there for free, or would you stay here?" 

And he replied, "Well my wife had a scare recently when she was over there, and they thought it was maybe cancer.  And she said to me, "I wish I was in the United States."   Because the system is so messed up over there."

  His wife was fine, by the way.   Then he went on about how his wife's Mom had come to the United States from England, and she had this thing where her hand was clenching up.  And they went to an American doctor and he told her, "Listen, if you had insurance you'd be getting a brain scan today.  Because I think there is something going on in your brain."

  So they packed her up and flew back to England.  And the doctors there told her that it was water in her ear giving her nausea.

  She later died from a brain tumor behind her ear.

  From what he says, the problem with the free care is that everyone comes in for everything, and there is no money-making incentive behind treating everyone.  So often they just tell people to get the fuck-out because they have something stupid like a cold.   Where in the United States we overkill the treatments because the doctors want to profit.  But that allows us to catch the things they miss.

  I'm not saying one is better than the other, but when I asked him again, "So dude, if you had cancer, what would you do?  Don't you worry about the bills?"  He said...  "Well it's a thing where if you have something serious it could cost a lot, but then you'd always want the best possible care because it's serious.  So I'd stay."

  I think his answer is interesting.  It shows that even though his care would be completely free vs spending tens of thousands on treatments here while on insurance.  He'd choose to pay to stay in our system.

  The problem though, is that most of our insurances have a maximum.  And when you get something serious, it's easy to go over the maximum benefit.  That happened to my Dad.  He had a stroke and reached his maximum of 2 million after the first year.  At which point they put you on Medicaid.  (But you have to liquidate your assets first, which is tough to do.)  Otherwise you're screwed.  At times like this, a free system would be better.

  I know people are looking at the Obama plan as a hope to fix the situation in this country, but his plan doesn't cover the unemployed.  And his plan is only insurance, not free medical care.  It will offer little change over what we have currently, except force employers to carry insurance that they didn't have to do before.

  Really, medical care is a difficult problem that we're a long way from fixing.  It's sad what people have to go through to get proper care. 

  I'd say you should see Sicko if you're interested, but also go to the Frontline website and watch their special on it as well.    (Click the menu item that says Watch Online)  Which is less funny but more fair.