Controversial Michael Moore Flick 'Sicko' Will Compare U.S. Health Care with Cuba's

Nurses Activism

Published

Health care advances in Cuba

According to the Associated Press as cited in the Post article, "Cuba has made recent advancements in biotechnology and exports its treatments to 40 countries around the world, raking in an estimated $100 million a year. ... In 2004, the U.S. government granted an exception to its economic embargo against Cuba and allowed a California drug company to test three cancer vaccines developed in Havana."

http://alternet.org/envirohealth/50911/?page=1

Specializes in L&D,Lactation.

If any one is interested in actually seeing the movie, and are in California, June 12 in Sacramento, at the convention center, CNA,(California Nurses Association) is sponsering a showing, coupeled with a rally for single payer health care (HM2Viking)

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Specializes in Cardiac Surg, IR, Peds ICU, Emergency.
Yes. With single payer the young formerly healthy accident victims in my ICU would have been paying into the single payer insurance plan.

Many were driving an expensive car, hold season tickets, go on worldwide ski trips, and live in a high rent part of the city.

Yet when they are injured we taxpayers end up paying the often very large bill.

With single payer they will all be paying their share. Those who are never injured or suffer a catastrophic illness will pay too.

How does the taxpayer end up paying the bill for the uninsured who are not covered by medicare or medicaid? And what kind of accidents? Likely they had auto insurance, which we've found to be one of the more generous reimbursements.

Where I used to work, these people were aggressively pursued for payment; we never passed the bill to the gov't.

I would like to read some reference to this.

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We recently had a patient who was found to be at fault in an auto accident. BAD trauma. This patient had a high paying job. His car was totaled.

Because he had so little money in the band and no longer had the car as an asset our social service department got him "emergency MediCal (our version of Medicaid).

He had set backs like infection, transferred out and returned on the vent again.

Links I could find:

http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov/MeetingAbstracts/102273722.html

I do think they will go after him when he is able to work. He has an advanced degree not in a healthcare area.

He was determined to me medically indigent with his multi week hospitalization.

My point is that all the ones like him who don't pay increase costs for everyone. When the risk pool includes young healthy people it keeps the cost down.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=4020907&dopt=Abstract

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Specializes in Cardiac Surg, IR, Peds ICU, Emergency.
We recently had a patient who was found to be at fault in an auto accident. BAD trauma. This patient had a high paying job. His car was totaled.

Because he had so little money in the band and no longer had the car as an asset our social service department got him "emergency MediCal (our version of Medicaid).

He had set backs like infection, transferred out and returned on the vent again.

Links I could find:

http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov/MeetingAbstracts/102273722.html

I do think they will go after him when he is able to work. He has an advanced degree not in a healthcare area.

He was determined to me medically indigent with his multi week hospitalization.

My point is that all the ones like him who don't pay increase costs for everyone. When the risk pool includes young healthy people it keeps the cost down.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=4020907&dopt=Abstract

His auto insurance should've covered him, and you can never design a system that will cover outlyers like this...someone with a high-paying job that didn't have a health benefits package? Someone with a highpaying job who had no assets?

And if Medical paid his bills, how can he now be liable for payment?

He is unwise, and I think it's silly that we should consider a single-payer system to protect people who are unwilling to protect themselves. Make him pay, not me.

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His auto insurance should've covered him, and you can never design a system that will cover outlyers like this...someone with a high-paying job that didn't have a health benefits package? Someone with a highpaying job who had no assets?

And if Medical paid his bills, how can he now be liable for payment?

He is unwise, and I think it's silly that we should consider a single-payer system to protect people who are unwilling to protect themselves. Make him pay, not me.

My auto insurance will not pay my medical expenses if I am at fault. The other driver will pay if I am not found to be at fault. My uninsured motorist add on will pay my medical bills if the other driver is not insured.

The thing is that with single payer a person with income cannot opt out. Plenty of young people choose not to pay for insurance.

My own daughter wouls if not for me. She can only work 30 hours a week because her job would have to insure her if she worked 32 hours.

She buys an HMO policy and doesn't use it. She goes once a year to an NP. But is insured if something happens.

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Specializes in Pulmonology/Critical Care, Internal Med.

You know I have been on both sides of the fence. Having lived in Germany was actually born there, I don't like the medical care over there. You think we get paid low here as RN's, try their version of minimum wage cause thats what a nurse makes. This didn't come from me, this came from a nurse this past summer who is a nurse and works in germany. She could not believe at how much we made here. Not to mention how small the waits were for major surgeries, etc.

As for a single payer system, heck no, I do not want the government telling me what is covered, how many of you have had problems jsut getting a wheel chair or a cane for your grandparent? I know I have, its a real pain, can't stand medicare.

As a poor student and by poor I mean DIRT poor even I have my own insurance, BCBS PPO. I know that being a poor student its very important to have health insurance, you get sick, you get in an accident, crap happens. It is the responsibility of each of us to get health insurance if we can. As someone who literally has no income except for student loans if I can get insurance they surely can.

MM......hes a wacko, about as impartial as Hitler. Do I think we have a problem here yes I do. I've worked for companys that didn't offer ANY health benefits and this was while working for a company INSIDE of a hospital. I think the problem is multi multi multi faceted. To have a single payer system will only see your taxes go sky high, your wages fall, and the shortage to get even worse. I bet you there are a lot more nurses wanting to come here to work than there are wanting to go to France, UK, Germany, Cuba, Canada to work.

Our system- we have problems with frivolous lawsuits, outrageous premiums, outrageous mal practice premiums, crazy high doctor salaries (last time I checked they were hardly ever around, the nurses made a lot of the decisions for the pt). Expensive drugs (come on now 2 + dollars per pill for a Zyrtec you've gotta be kidding me) Hospitals wanting to get in on the game of making a profit. Don't get me wrong I'm all for making a profit, I like money in my pocket just like the next man and believe I deserve a good paycheck for what I do. But if you take all those items you could draw a little flow diagram and see how they are all interconnected to one another. Get rid of those and you start to get lower healthcare costs. Personally I wish they required all employers to offer healtcare with a specific level that they pay at, and for small businesses give them a tax break so they can pay the bills to help get their employees insurance.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I just don't get how MM actually expects his claims that Cuba has better health care can actually pass the smell test. Yep and that's why the nation depends on relatives from the States sending back money and meds.

Look, I understand how the MM's of the world are enamored with Cuba: it is everything they want in the way of a socialist, progressive world.

Convincing MOST Americans that they would want to live like most Cubans? Shoot, give it your best shot.

~faith,

Timothy.

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Not me, I want the explicit right to speak my opinion.

But I do think we need to improve our healthcare.

Perhaps teach personal responsibility.

I did some nutrition teaching in public schoold in 1999. Nurses and dieticians taught high school volunteers to teach 2nd, 4th, and 6th graders healthy eating.

It was a team of two high schoolers and one health professional.

I think the nurse in the neighborhood is a good idea. We need more PHN's but that will require people seeing the advantage in healthy living and modeling personal responsibility. There is not much profit in keeping people healthy. Especially teaching children good health habits that they can teach their children.

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Specializes in Diabetes ED, (CDE), CCU, Pulmonary/HIV.
Such a "speech" or "paper" doesn't have to cover everything, but it cannot be intellectually dishonest or misleading in it's attempts to persuade, such as Moore's films are.

The review was written subjectively by a woman with a specific political agenda. Her position is clear, and she probably wouldn't even deny that her review is biased. What I find disingenius is that she cited an example of an experimental treatment that was not covered by a private insurer, and then championed socialized models, which pay FAR less frequently for experimental treatments.

Bone Marrow transplant has been accepted treatment for some time. This is not an experimental treatment just because an insurance company says it is. They need to update their information.

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Specializes in Cardiac Surg, IR, Peds ICU, Emergency.
Bone Marrow transplant has been accepted treatment for some time. This is not an experimental treatment just because an insurance company says it is. They need to update their information.

There are still bone marrow transplant procedures that are considered experimental, i.e. non-myeloablative. The insurance companies don't get to decide this; the FDA does.

Unfortunately, the REGISTERED NURSE who wrote the article only shot a vague accusation across the bow; she failed to reference or adequately explain that particular incident.

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Specializes in ER, ICU, cardiac.

has anyone on here even seen the movie?

It doesn't matter what is thought of MM. My thought is, whatever puts the topic out there and starts dialouge. We are nurses and we deal with the healthcare/insurance issues ALL the time. There are many people who are completely oblivious to it. I do think that there is individual responsibility, but i have been poor. like eating ramen noodles dirt poor. i have had to house homeless friends and there kids. i know what it is like to choose food vs. insurance. there has to be a solution and if this movie makes people think or talk about it then that is helpful in itself.

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Specializes in Cardiac Surg, IR, Peds ICU, Emergency.

If you have to misrepresent a position to spur discussion, then you need to leave the issue to more honest and qualified people. Especially if all you can do to justify the millions you will make is claim morality on the basis of 'spurring discussion.'

That's MM's strategy; he criticizes the system from a pulpit of activism, and then when MM or his crowd are called out for their disinenuity, they attempt to claim the cover of "satire."

It's blatantly unethical. If we practiced medicine with the same set of morals that MM applies, we'd be able to justify anything we did based on outcome alone, without worrying much about the equally important process. i.e. who cares if that nurse stole the leftover morphine instead of wasting it? The patient got theirs, and the nurse didn't hurt anyone.

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