Look, I'm no policy expert and I'm not a doctor (although I play one on TV). I am also not a fan of Michael Moore and his conspiracy theories.
But even fat America-haters who are wrong MOST of the time can sometimes be tragically right. I think he's hit the nail on the head in his movie "Sicko". Our health care system is ridiculously twisted upside down. The big HMOs are basically an organized crime syndicate whose very goal is to deny coverage as frequently as possible, to as many patients as possible. They could not care less about your health, my health, or anyone's health. Their sole reason for existence is to make a fat profit by denying legitimate health claims and by buying favors from politicians in Congress (both Republicans and Democrats).
What is the point of having the most advanced medical technologies, the most advanced imaging, the best diagnostics, when the vast majority of your citizens could not possibly hope to take advantage of these techniques due to the red tape imposed by the health insurance mafia bosses?
A large portion of the health care debate centers on the number of UN-insured Amercians. But the amazing thing is: even if you ARE insured, you're still Fu$%ed !!
Because when something serious DOES happen to you or a loved one, your insurance company will look for any excuse in the book to deny your claims, and then send you a hundred "Explanation of Benefit" statements with so much baffling BS in it, that it takes a Pentagon cryptographer to try and decipher their so called "reasons" for denial of service. It's really a very sad state of affairs. Instead of concentrating on getting better, patients have to spend their days and nights calliing their insurance companies and fighting for their right of coverage.
This is a racket in every sense of the word. Even if you're "covered", when the sh^t hits the fan you're really NOT covered. The private health insurance profit model is based on denial of claims, pure and simple. These decisions are made not by the on-site clinicians treating the patient, but by paper-pusher administrators sitting in a far-away office and collecting additional bonuses for every claim they reject. Disgusting.
I am not saying I have all the solutions, or that there is a perfect model out there. I realize that the UK and Canada alternatives have their own problems. But the current US model is deeply flawed, unethical, inhumane, and just plain disturbing. When you hear all of the horror stories of good, honest folks who THOUGHT they were insured, but were rudely surprised.
So I'm not even talking about all the millions who are un-insured. Just the ones who are "supposedly" insured. It's a broken system.
06-08-2009, 03:51 PM
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