Ken,

What are your ideas on how to fix the health care crisis and the ridiculous insurance costs?

Honestly, I'm stumped.

Susan (who has had many a nightmarish health insurance experience)

With insurance, it would be competition. It's virtually impossible to start up a new insurance company to compete with existing companies. And this isn't just health insurance either -- it's any kind of insurance.

Existing insurance companies have a virtual monopoly on the industry because of "regulation." Government regulations are actually good for the regulated industries because they make it almost impossible for new companies to arise and offer new services. Sure the regulations make things far more expensive to the customer, but they also guarantee that the existing businesses will not go out of business if they don't offer good services.

As far as medical care is concerned, government regulations make doctors and hospitals far more expensive than they would otherwise be. Compliance with government mandated paperwork costs money . . . lots of money! I understand that doctors spend just as much of their time filling out government paperwork as they do with their patients. This doubles the cost of a visit to the doctor.

Pharmaceutical companies are the same. They not only have a monopoly on the industry, the FDA raises the cost of developing new medicines to astronomical heights. A minor example would be when drug companies discovered that a small daily dose of aspirin would help to prevent heart attacks; it took them eleven years -- and goodness knows how many dollars -- to get "permission" from the FDA to advertise that fact. Compliance with FDA regulations have caused untold deaths and a tremendous increase in the costs of medicines.

Lower expenses and let new companies come into the fold and costs would drop significantly.

Competition always raises quality and lowers costs.

Ken V.

You nailed it with Moore Ken. I feel pretty much the same way about the guy. And from a few articles I have read he uses Cuba's social health care industry as the shining example of how it should be in this movie. I will never see this so I will have to take the peoples word on that.

I couldn't agree more that our Health care industry is a complete and total mess and needs some serious revamping but making the government more involved is absolutely the wrong way to go about it.

Agreed!

Isn't it the government involvement that has it so screwed up already?

That's what I see of the situation. Politicians and insurance companies (for example) have been in each others hip pockets for generations. And -- as always -- the customer gets the shaft.

Ken V.

I don't always agree with him but I do think he makes valid points. He is a filmmaker first and foremost and knows how to manipulate the audience like any good filmmaker.

The valid point in this case is that things are a mess. The problem is that his authoritarian approach to a solution is worse than the disease. In fact, it is the disease.

Ken V.

My brother dragged me into seeing Sicko. I'm easy to bribe: hot dog, large popcorn (layered with real butter), and a large sugar-free lemonade (refillable).

Well, there wasn't anything in the movie that I didn't already know. As a hypochondriac, I'm well-read in the medical journals; plus, my ESL students always brag about the healthcare in their countries.

However, there were a few laughs in the movie.

And I gave up seeing Die Hard 4 for this?

AC

P.S. Moore went out of his way to mention that the French pay no taxes for their Universal Healthcare, but didn't mention taxes when discussing Canadian UH. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Canada pay an arm and a leg for UH?