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I DON'T LIKE CHANGE!

So far - not liking the new format......they of course must attempt to make money off of the google ads, etc - through our news settings....what if you wrote the news story?

Politics.com just has a bunch of usernames but only a handful of us use it!

discussion is open to talk up or talk down any part of what "politics team" has recently altered to the current site

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After Watching Micheal Moore's Film, Sicko, (Part 2)

So, the initial thoughts after watching the film are located in my part 1 blog. (http://www.politics.com/blog/7114/after-watching-micheal-moores-film-sicko-part-1/) Now that a near month has gone by and people have brought the subject up to me, where am I with this issue? I will get back to that in a minute, but first here is what happened in the first blog.

To sum it up: In the 1st blog I brought up, how the current system is broken with insurance companies that deny payment for life threatening surgeries. They do this for profit. They create pre-existing conditions whether you have them or not just by looking at your past medical records. For example, because you said you had headaches, they will call a tumor pre-existing condition.  I also brought up the current forms of socialism that we have such as schools or libraries. I discussed Hillary who wanted to regulate the industry. We've regulated the power companies, the water companies, the phone companies, etc. Yet people in general don't want to treat this as a needed utility. We need energy, water, and communication services.  Are we not equal in our need for healthcare?

The response in the first blog: Mostly attacks Micheal Moore instead of going after the issue intact. People attempt to call him a propagandist as a negative term, like an insult. People do this when they call someone liberal or conservative in this culture as well.

In my daily life after watching the film: When I've discussed politics with people and then they bring up an opposition against Universal Healthcare without a why. So I ask and and ask and ask. And only one person had a good answer which was a financial motivation to do well in school. He said he knew someone that put up 145k on his dorm room which was the average first year starting salary for students out of his medical program. So my question to him was, do you really want a doctor who is motivated by money rather than motivated by helping the person that is sick? He brought up law school and lawyers as an example as well. I responded to him. People go to law school for different reasons. I have seen a few surveys ranging financial motivation between 9-14% which isn't a lot. If you were innocent of crime, you wouldn't want the lawyer defending you to have been part of that 9-14%. Yet his reasoning is the only one that is pro-privatized healthcare with at least some guts.

Sometimes, I'd bring up Micheal Moore's film "Sicko" and then someone would respond, "You know that film isn't true" And I'd tell them to please tell me which parts so that I could go back and re-watch it. Yet the scare tactics get people to not watch the film.

Where was I on this issue before I watched this film?  I didn't like the idea of loads of insurance company workers being  out of work. That was my sole reason for being against universal healthcare. They are legalized crime. They murder people for profit. End of story.

What happens when it is you? Half of the families in 2005 that filed bankruptcy had filed at the onset of a serious medical problem or accident. Many of you might say, so what that they didn't have insurance? 75% of those families who had filed bankruptcy had medical insurance at the time of the serious medical problem or accident. They played by the rules, had education, had a mortgage, and even had health insurance.

A doctor, Elizabeth, from India, here in America for quite some time called what insurance companies do as inhuman. She is the first person and only person that I have invited into that issue. Out of everything she said, my favorite quote, "You can't have too many ethics and still be a millionaire." It makes sense. 

These millionaire and billionaire CEO's are murdering people. Yet the middle class  proponents of privatized healthcare don't see that this this could be them filing bankruptcy or dying as a result of these crimes against humanity. You could lose everything. This isn't an argument for the uninsured. The film is about you, who have played by the rules the entire time. This film is about you, who have insurance. Don't criticize the film about being inacurate until you can pin point exact points of the film just because you don't want to watch it.

Micheal Moore brings this discussion to the fore front and does it well. A Harvard Professor said that there are two myths in healthcare in the USA today, one is, "I have health insurance, so that means I'm safe" (or really safe if I pay a lot) The other is that universal healthcare doesn't work. She says, "there is some really embarrassing data....." According to the film, the system is NOT being altered to fit the needs of the people; but, the people are being changed to fit the needs of the system. 

They say, people grow conservative. - well, maybe those are thoughts for  (part 3)

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After watching Micheal Moore's film, Sicko (part 1)

My initial response after watching this film is that universal healthcare in America is necessary. I think that Hillary's idea was great to keep the health insurance companies at the table, but now they had their chance. This film made me angry, SICK! It really is common sick. A human life is priceless. What would you pay to save your life? What amount would you pay to save your life? It is infinite. They know this and yet you don't act on it.

We have socialized fire department. We have a socialized school system - A socialized library. The view that you might want to argue: Why should I pay for someone else? Well that is a rather individualistic view. Is it not. I would say that the individualistic view is selfish. You want a child to not receive a surgery because the health insurance company doesn't want to pay for it? This film isn't about the child without health insurance. It shows stories about those that do have health insurance. It is people's jobs to deny claims. Then if you are not somehow denied, after the health company is paid, they look for reasons to retroactively take their money from you. (by looking at your medical records  and creating a pre-existing condition) - that means if you had a headache ever so now and then that you reported to your doctor, prior to coverage, they could say that your brain surgery was a pre-existing condition and retro-actively cancel your health insurance.

The current system is broken. I have spoken with a person here on politics via email. Yes, there is something wrong with profiteering off of people. These employees that work for these health insurance companies get bonuses for denying claims that could save your life. Meaning, chemotherapy for cancer. The health insurance company could deny your claim if you have cancer and say that it isn't terminal yet. The film Sicko is filled with people who have health insurance.

Basically to quote the film, "If they weren't able to weed you out in the application process or deny you the care your doctor said you needed and somehow ended up paying for the operation, they send in Lee. [Lee's] job is to get the company's money back any way he can. All he has to do is find one slip up on the application or a pre-existing condition you didn't know you had."  - They go through your health history for the last five years and look for stuff that you may of concealed or jack the rates so high that you couldn't pay them. Lee says, "They're supposed to be fair and even handed, but with an insurance company, it's their freaking money. So it's not un-intentional. It's not a mistake. It's not an oversight. You're not slipping through the cracks. Somebody made that crack and swept you towards it. And the intent is to maximize profits." People this is

Folks this is unacceptable! What health insurance companies are doing...The idea not to cover pre-existing conditions are ridiculous. Do you breathe? Exist? Are you mortal? The film showed an airing on CSPAN on May 30th 1996. Dr. Linda Peeno, former medical reviwer at Humana,  testified before US Congress, "I am here today to make a public cnnfession. In the Spring of 1987, as a physician, I denied a man a necessary operation that would have saved his life, and thus caused his death. No person and no group has held me accountable for this, because, in fact, what I did was I saved the company a half a milion dollars for this. And furthermore, this particular act secured my reputation as a good medical director, and it insured my continued advancement in the healthcare field." 4 times as many healthcare lobbyist than congressman.

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Universal Healthcare? Problem or Solution

18,000 people die each year due to lack of health insurance. That is six 9/11’s each year. So what should be done about it since an estimated 45 million Americans lack health insurance? Should a crappy health insurance plan with low rates be offered? Many health insurance plans I come across have an 80/20 offer when it comes to health insurance. But 20% of any hospital bill is still a lot of money. It isn’t that people can’t afford to go to the doctor; I think that many of us can afford that if we scrap up the money. They say the number one cause of bankruptcy is lack of health insurance. There goes some bailout monies. Well, we have a pay or die healthcare system. That is just what it is and so to conclude that we should have universal healthcare is RIDICULOUS. Wait a minute, a lot of what I said, would help those points. Well, rich people from other countries come to America for healthcare because we have the “best” healthcare system in the world. Best, being relative to the highest customer satisfaction. [Okay we don’t have the most customers because of financial issues] Whatever! What do I mean by customer? "The word customer dehumanizes the poor" because you can't be a patient at a hospital without being a customer first.

So, there are several industries that depend on Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, etc for them to exist and live. The customer service representatives that work for these companies have to spend their money somewhere. Along with the analyst, managers, secretary’s, assistants, and so on, that work for these insurance companies have to spend there money on industries that the rest of us work in. We are dependent in part that they get to keep their jobs so we NEED the commercialism in the healthcare system. We need the discussion not to be universal healthcare for all, but an option to make it more affordable. We need the individuals working in the healthcare field to have a financial incentive as well. When dealing with a solution to this problem is difficult because it comes down to one thing and one thing only; it is called, greed. We could offer more medical clinics in cities and charge based on income, yet that is a band-aid to the issue and not a solution. More medical clinics would give less incentive for people to get their own health insurance, while others would use it for what it actually should be, a temporary solution.

 So we can force a temporary solution on to each issue, like unemployment or welfare, but it doesn’t work; people will take the hand-outs because it is less effort and more reward. Not as much reward as it would be if people strived for their own. Hmmm..now there is an idea. Let’s take that greed and use it against them. Everyone by law has car insurance in Texas. I have seen rates as low as $29.99 a month. That is pretty normal, only liability, but pretty normal to see a side bar street offer of insurance rates like that. So, if they required everyone to have some minimal form of insurance, ideally they would want to go to a higher rate later on. If they made the field of insurance less stringent for business to get into then that could help. Greed in this case would be a wonderful thing. People open up a small shop on the street corner wit a sign that reads: (Liability health Insurance for hospital only - no doctor visits included - buy 1 get 1 free for six months at 39.99. )Maybe offer an incentive to provide health insurance to yourself since the tax code is so messed up anyway. How’s a 5% write off?

But on the opposition to a profit based healthcare system,  if you prefer to pay or die healthcare system because you will always be lucky enough to afford insurance or if you prefer this system because everyone you care about and will care about in the future will always be lucky enough to afford insurance, then by all means, support the $600 bucks a month or more insurance costs. Former mayor of Cincinnati said on the health insurance issue, “How can you claim to love America, if you can’t bring yourself to love Americans?”

(This is simply a discovery process that I wrote 95%  before researching further on the issue of  the healthcare industry killing people for profit or the domineering force against saving people, that includes that 2 year old child that never did anything wrong because the healthcare industry wanted to call it a pre-existing condition. )