Guaranteed Healthcare

As a Canadian jounalist who has lived and worked across both Canada and the U.S., I can only be bemused that some of your right-wing presidential candidates are attacking "socialized health care." Every country in the world that can afford it -- except the U.S. -- has "socialized health care." Most Americans are so brainwashed by your right-wing corporate mass media that they're scared sh__less of the very notion of anything being "socialized."
If you had a real democracy and a truly democratic mass media, you brainwashed Americans would understand that Socialism Equals Sanity!

Thank you Michael Moore. Everyday of my career in nursing I work with families to understand their benefits and to fight for their care. Most people get the insurance card and do not read the fine print. We need to understand our system of healthcare. It is for profit not for health. Many small rural hospitals can not make it and most because of poor insurance reimbursement. Small hospitals save lives too. This is my world currently the community hospitals. We as Americans need to make a change, we need healthcare for everyone. It is one area of discrimination not yet fought. Underinsured, no insurance and no cash or resources. No medicine for a simple infection could mean death. This is real!!!
Thank YOU, Thank YOU, Thank YOU Mr. Moore you have opened the forbidden discussion not touched since Senator Clinton tried to make the public aware. NOW is the time we can open the publics eyes!! Now is the time!
A grateful nurse well aware and ready to help.

Michael Moore is a credit to his profession. From Cuba, to Cannes, and tomorrow, from Sacramento, California, RNs will bear witness to the truth in "SiCKO", a film that should break all our hearts. "Here comes trouble" is right, for the likes of the Cato libertarian,(every man for himself), Tanner who has been quoted as calling the film "silly." And he doesn't stop there, calling it a shame if Moore's "...propaganda stampedes Americans into sacrificing the quality, choice and freedom that our health care system provides today." What's so silly about suffering and dying patients? The real shame here is that we allow the tragedy of illness and injury to be compounded by financial ruin! Interesting that he mentions choice and freedom...pre-authorization, exclusions, deductibles, co-pays, caps, gaps, pre-existing conditions, PPO/HMO, in-network, out-of-network, denials...certainly he's not talking about personal choice and freedom from the wasteful insurance company bureaucracy! And forget quality, unless he means quality profits at the expense of sick people. RNs will tell you that true quality is safe, therapeutic, and effective care. Patients are sicker when they are admitted to hospitals and they're being discharged before they're well. Most cannot afford the medications their doctor prescribes, and if they have insurance, that medication may very well not be "covered." What planet does this Tanner fellow reside on? There's definitely a hole in the moral ozone there!

In reality, we all have suffered as a nation, because we have allowed special interest politicians and their corporate cronies to obscure our sense of the common good and our shared humanity. RNs have a proud historical tradition of social advocacy, in the exclusive interest of patients. It's our duty, and we're not gonna sit on our hands and whine. Health care is a right and we're all in this together. SiCKO is going to reset our national moral and ethical social compass and RNs will be there, "taking it to the streets" to repair our broken public health care infrastructure with the only politically responsible cure: SB840/HR676.

The Cato Institutes of this world spend a lot of time arguing about whether having single-payer would lead to "waiting lists". Leaving aside the question of how long the waiting list is for uninsured Americans to receive care, I want to share two family anecdotes.

Two years ago my wife and I were on vacation in France. She got a foot infection which soon began to creep up her ankle with a red inflammation. We went to the "Mutualite", the giant French cooperative through which half of French families receive their medical care (imagine Kaiser with consumer-elected local, regional and national boards). She did indeed have to wait two hours before seeing a doctor. That's because the clerks spent that much time trying to find a way to avoid billing her personally for the care, but couldn't get through to Kaier. Finally, they charged her 20 euros for the excellent medical care she received.

In contrast, after my father had his first heart attack in Canada, he was afraid to cross the U.S. border (which was across the street from him) for fear of the financial consequences should he have a second attack here.

"We went to the "Mutualite", the giant French cooperative through which half of French families receive their medical care (imagine Kaiser with consumer-elected local, regional and national boards). She did indeed have to wait two hours before seeing a doctor. That's because the clerks spent that much time trying to find a way to avoid billing her personally for the care, but couldn't get through to Kaiser. Finally, they charged her 20 euros for the excellent medical care she received."

This is slightly incorrect. The Mutualite is not a single cooperative. A "mutuelle" is the equivalent for insurance of what a credit union is for banks; that is, the subscribers of the insurance plan "own" the company and vote in its boards. Mutuelles are often organized by branch of employment (subscription is not compulsory, and several mutuelles may compete in the same field). Some of these mutuelles (such as MGEN) as enormous, some are smaller. The Mutualite is the union of the French mutuelles. Some of the mutuelles own hospitals, but, anyway, you may in general get health care under the same conditions in public (civilian or military), private (for profit or nonprofit) hospitals (*), and, besides, most French general practicioner physicians are self-employed. By going to a private self-employed physician, you would also have paid €20.

(*) Exceptions include rare clinics that cater to the wealthy.