Monday, July 02, 2007

Every American Should See The Film Sicko

I just got home from watching Sicko. I had not been to a movie in about 3 years. Mostly because the movies that have been coming out lately have been lame...and they did nothing to "move" me to want to see them. And it's also because I basically hate to go out. Also, my favorite movie theater in Richmond Heights (inner ring St. Louis burb) has been pretty much destroyed...so I had to cut down on my trips to the show. But when I do go, I now have to drive to a burb (a quieter one) farther out.

Anyway... I had an idea of what Moore was going to cover based on all the reviews and the publicity. But that still didn't prepare me for this one. I will offer no spoilers...but I will say that this film should be required viewing for all Americans, regardless of social/economic status (teens on up). And unlike Fahrenheit 9/11, this film has no political bent.

If anyone wants to know why the Angry Independent is so angry.... go watch the film Sicko. This film sums up quite a bit of my frustration. There are so many things that the film touches on...that I won't attempt to do a review. But it goes beyond healthcare and flirts with the wider questions of how we got here, who the hell are we as a nation, who are we as supposedly civilized human beings, who we are as a so-called "Democracy", and where are our priorities?

I knew of the problems with the healthcare industry, but Moore has a way of giving you a look under the rug to see just how dirty things really are. The health system in the U.S. is basically a criminal racket (like the mob) run by Corporations that are not concerned whatsoever about the best interests of patients. They are primarily concerned with profits. As a result, the U.S. healthcare system has decayed to a pretty dismal level in terms of patient care. It's now pretty much a broken system.

This is the problem with having a critical sector like public health owned and controlled by the private sector. This should have never happened. It should have become a publicly run system a long time ago. Private doctors and private insurers here in the U.S. get cudos and bonuses for cutting off your healthcare and thus protecting (and increasing) the profits of their corporations. The current private U.S. system has created a race to the bottom in terms of patient care, and has motivated health workers to focus on profit over people. This has allowed greed and corruption to take control of the system. This is the nature of private business... which is why it is the wrong framework for providing healthcare.

In contrast, national health systems in other countries focus on prevention and on the needs of the human being, rather than on the profits of a corporation. The systems are not driven by profit. Once you remove the element of private corporate profits- (Healthcare as a business)- the focus is placed on the patient. In the U.S., workers in the private healthcare industry are rewarded with cash bonuses based on the number of people they turn away (many of whom ultimately get sicker and die). They are offered incentives for making you sicker. But in State controlled health systems overseas, healthcare workers (Doctors in the UK for example) are given bonuses based on the number of people who they can make healthier. The focus of a good State run health system (People) is completely the opposite of what the focus is in the current private health system in the U.S. (Profits).

Just imagine if other critical sectors of the society were controlled by private interests instead of public interests. Could you imagine private police forces? This is already happening ladies and gentleman in certain corners of American society. Imagine a situation where private corporations offered police services to cities and counties across the nation. The private corporation would be responsible of setting standards and the concern would be to provide service at the cheapest cost. The city would be concerned with obtaining the lowest bid contract. And the company would have an interest in paying police the least amount possible to provide the service as a way of maximizing profits.

Could you imagine a private FDA? Well guess what.... we already have that by proxy. The FDA is owned and operated by the private drug industry.... they not only have the FDA and the Congress people in their pockets... these Corporations have their own people working in the government....and vice versa, retired government folks go on to work as corporate officers or board members of the companies that they regulate (something that should be outright illegal). This is why we have so many drugs making people sick...and so many drugs flooding the market in general...and at such high prices that many people can't even afford the decent (low risk & relatively safe) drugs that they need.

Could you imagine private soldiers and private militias driven by profits and accountable to no one? This is already happening as well.

Private ambulance companies??? This is an industry that has been around for a while and it is growing. Many communities are turning to private ambulance services because they are cheaper. Cheaper often = ambulance crews who earn just a few bucks above minimum wage. The city of St. Louis uses private ambulance companies to augment the small St. Louis Fire Department fleet. If something major happens in the city of St. Louis...like a 9/11 type mass casualty event... there would not be nearly enough ambulance crews to deal with it (Not even with the St. Louis Metro Mutual Aid System, which is a pretty impressive system). Such a major disaster in St. Louis would be a calamity....because again, the focus is on profits, rather than Public Safety and Health. I recall one case where a man waited over 20 minutes for one of the private ambulances to arrive. The man, a heart attack victim, did not survive. The private ambulance company continues to take ambulance calls for the city.

But the list goes on and on. We are slowly losing critical sectors or institutions to private corporate interests.... Sectors like public health should not be profit driven industries.

I give the film 4 1/2 Stars out of 5. And it should be considered for an Oscar (for a Documentary) in my humble opinion.

That's all for now....

7 comments:

rikyrah said...

I saw it Saturday, and thank Michael Moore for his excellent movie. It'll make you cry and right when you'll be ready to leave, he makes you laugh so that you stay in your seat so that he can break your heart again.

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful essay on SiCKO you have posted here! I agree wholeheartedly with everything you say.

The sad thing to me is that SiCKO, wonderful as the film is, just touches upon the basic flaws in our so-called “healthcare” system. There is so much more that is wrong with this broken system that the film does not address.

For instance, how about the actual care the "fully insured" patient gets once he or she gets inside the hospital door?

As the recent widow of a 15-year brain tumor survivor, I can tell you that -- even with a "Cadillac," non-HMO insurance policy -- lots of mistakes and indignities occurred in several of our "top U.S. hospitals."

Just a few of the many things that happened to my husband:

He was left unattended by anyone except his wife (me) for 10 hours in the emergency room, while his head leaked cranial fluid. Hospital employees were just “too busy” to notice, even though I kept begging them to help.

And do you know what "death by decimal" is? That's when a patient is given either 10 times the amount -- or 1/10 of the amount -- of a prescribed medication. This happened to my husband several times, as well.

And there was more -- much more. I have written about some of the other things that happened in my review of SiCKO posted on my blog, HonestMedicine.com.

As you point out so beautifully, the FDA is financially tied to Big Pharma. This is a big problem. It means, of course, that we can't be sure our drugs are even safe.

Just as bad, the doctors are also often tied financially to Big Pharma: They receive gifts from drug companies, they go to company-sponsored "seminars," and -- this is probably the worst part –- they are paid by the drug companies to conduct so called drug "trials." AND then, these well-paid doctors/”researchers” often sign their names to medical journal articles about the drugs they have "independently" reviewed. These articles, by the way, are very often actually written by drug company PR people.

Lots of people, including Marcia Angell, MD, former editor of the “New England Journal of Medicine,” have written about this problem for years.

You're right. Our situation is bad. Very bad. To concentrate (as so many reviewers have) on whether or not there are long lines in countries with universal healthcare is just obscuring the fact that WE have a BIG problem, and should fix it.

I have only covered the tip of the iceberg here. But, SiCKO is a great film.

If Michael Moore has started a long overdue discussion, he has done more than anyone else has done.

Bravo!

PS: I plan to post a link to your great review on my site.

Julia Schopick
www.HonestMedicine.com

AAPP said...

Great Post!

As Francis Holland has been pointing out for some time Health Care is a major issue in this country and around the world. It's unfortunate that in another 3 months or so, our Congress will authorize another 100 Billion dollars on war vs 100 billion dollars to fix the healthcare system and provide health care for every, man, woman and child, in America.

Again, Angry Independent, great post. I;m going to check out the film,

Brian said...

Julia,

Thank you for your comments and for sharing the story about your husband. Probably the most aggravating part is being ignored in those situations. There seems to be two main forces contributing to this problem... #1. Hospitals trying to get by on the cheap by not having enough staff on duty (to lower personnel costs and pocket the profits), and #2. Not enough sources for nursing education. There are not enough schools and not enough qualified nurse educators... therefore we are not producing enough high quality nurses.

And your comments about the doctors and the drug companies is just frightening. That should be illegal for doctors to sign off on PR nonsense written by the companies. In fact, it should be illegal to have any fraternization at all between the two entities. The only money that should exchange hands should be closely regulated and should only include funds for the medicine and to cover the costs of the trial. Nothing more. No gifts, no vacations, no cash, and no parties.
That just encourages corruption...and increases the risk to the public. Again... the whole concept of capitalism has to be removed from the healthcare system. As long as capitalism remains the underpinning of the system.... the problems will continue.

Thanks for linking to this post...

Brian said...

Thanks AAPP,

As you mentioned...priorities are truly out of order.

Ironically, the most important quotes from the film had nothing to do (directly) with health insurance. Those quotes came during a group discussion at the restaurant in France and with the British elder.

I'll see if you can pick out the quote from the restaurant group discussion. It was a simple statement, but true... and I believe it was said by a Black woman (if I recall correctly).

Tony Benn was eloquent as well.

Anonymous said...

AI: Great review! I'll make sure to check it out this weekend.

Have a good one!

Angie
www.nuvisionforanuday.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

Hi, Angry Independent:

Thanks for responding to my comment. I really appreciate it.

You are absolutely right when you say (in your comment back to me) that it "should be illegal for doctors to sign off on PR nonsense written by the companies."

Well, not only does it not seem to be illegal, but please take the time to read about a person I now consider a friend, Dr. Aubrey Blumsohn, Sheffield (England) University medical/pharmaceutical research scientist.

Dr. Blumsohn was commissioned by Procter and Gamble to test their osteoporosis drug, Actonel, but was denied access to key data. P & G wrote "his" analysis of it for him. When he complained about not having seen the data, the company tried to silence him. He wouldn't be silenced, so he lost his job.

Slate.com published a fascinating article about his ordeal, "Rent-a-Researcher: Did a British university sell out to Procter & Gamble?" (See http://www.slate.com/id/2133061/).

And I have written about Dr. Blumsohn’s plight on HonestMedicine.com, as well. Dr. Blumsohn has a very fine blog/website, The Scientific Misconduct Blog. It is one of my favorites. (See http://scientific-misconduct.blogspot.com/ .)

There are so many honest researchers who have tried to change this system, but they are too often punished for their efforts.

If you'd like to write about this topic, I would be happy to share links with you.

Meanwhile, do read my 3-part article, "The JAMA Controversy," on a related topic at http://301url.com/jama-all. You'll be shocked to learn that some medical journals publish articles reporting on "studies" whose researchers/authors have financial ties to Big Pharma.

I have lots of articles about Big Pharma on my HonestMedicine.com site. I have grouped just a few of them at http://301url.com/pharmaarticles .

Informing the public is very important. Thanks for letting me share some of this important information with your readers. I really appreciate having this opportunity.

Julia Schopick
www.HonestMedicine.com
www.WebBasedPR.com