SiCKO does look good! I grew up in a country with socialized (actually free privatized!) healthcare. I had never seen a cash register in a hospital before.
One horror story that Michael Moore didn't touch on, I remember hearing about a few years ago. A guy in England had bad chest pains. He went to the doctor, and they said he ended heart surgery. But because he smoked, they wouldn't operate! They told him that he'd have to quit for 6 months before they could operate. The guy agreed and died two months later of a heart attack!
So it's good, but not perfect!!
One horror story that Michael Moore didn't touch on, I remember hearing about a few years ago. A guy in England had bad chest pains. He went to the doctor, and they said he ended heart surgery. But because he smoked, they wouldn't operate! They told him that he'd have to quit for 6 months before they could operate. The guy agreed and died two months later of a heart attack!
One horror story that Michael Moore didn't touch on, I remember hearing about a few years ago. A guy in England had bad chest pains. He went to the doctor, and they said he ended heart surgery. But because he smoked, they wouldn't operate! They told him that he'd have to quit for 6 months before they could operate. The guy agreed and died two months later of a heart attack!
OOPS!
Sorry about that last post.
I wanted to say that every country has to ration healthcare somehow, because there is an inexhaustible demand for it. When Britain's National Health Service was first created, the government believed that it would be more or less cost-neutral - because many sick people would be made well, and need no more treatment. In fact medicine has found more and more expensive ways of keeping illness in check so the NHS always needs more money. The haggling and price negotiating is done by politicians and administrators behind the scenes, but it must be done. Rationing can be tied to preventive measures like giving up smoking, but some rationing is inevitable.
At least they cover the kids who never asked to be born into capitalism a la Bush. It's a start. Now if they do right by the combat vets... the guys who are a little braver than guys like me, and do more for this country than pay taxes and a fly a flag, maybe we'll eventually become a civilized country, maybe by the end of my life.