02.29.08
The Other Side of Sicko
This morning I received an email from Patti with a link to a YouTube video. I thought the video might be good to share as a short rebuttal to Michael Moore’s Sicko movie. Thanks, Patti! 
Moore’s movie Sicko and this short YouTube video called A Short Course on Brain Surgery appear to be on the opposite sides of the spectrum. Personally, I think there should be a medium, or middle of the road. For instance, I was a bit surprised at the comment from the Brain Surgery video that “private medical practice is illegal” in Canada. I think people should at least have the choice whether to see a private doc or a government doc. And while I do see the point made in the Brain Surgery video about the slow services provided for certain medical situations in Canada, sometimes medical procedures are too quickly forced upon us here in the U.S. Plus, I don’t think the couple in the Brain Surgery video should now be trying to get their government to pay the medical bills that they accrued while in the U.S. Although I do think there is something to be said about the wife’s comment that “they would mortgage their home” for treatment. And that’s exactly the situation our medical system here ends up doing to U.S. citizens. Definitely down sides to both systems. Anyway, here’s the link to the video http://www.freemarketcure.com/brainsurgery.php
Marlakins
patti said,
March 2, 2008 at 11:55 pm
I think you’re right about there has to be a middle ground. I think the balance is between preventative care and actual care. I don’t have a good answer. I think both systems as they currently are, are wrong. Supposedly in Canada it’s almost impossible to see an ND. At least according to a person on one of the forums I’ve been on. Unfrorunately, I think the answer we are going to get as Americans is not one that many of us want.
Administrator said,
March 4, 2008 at 9:15 am
Hi Patti:
The solution to medical care is a tough one, huh? I agree that more emphasis should be spent on preventative care, but with all our environmental toxins, even that makes it tough for us. I recently checked out Sherry Roger’s book, Detoxify or Die. She explains in her book how we are constantly exposed to toxins each day, not only from the foods we eat due to production and storage, but also through environmental factors from the fumes from cars to the out gassing from construction materials, furniture, clothing, and even from the water we bathe in. We need to educate ourselves in order to be able to care for ourselves the best we can.
Anyway, back to the medical system, I watched the other video on your link regarding the “Uninsured of America.” http://www.freemarketcure.com/uninsuredinamerica.php Now that one was also interesting and something I had wondered about myself. Personally, I know people who fall in that category. That is, people who “can” afford medical insurance, but “choose” “not” to pay for insurance. I’ve been there myself and just my luck, I had only enrolled in my medical plan at work a few months before I got AA, yikes. . . God had my back or what? Although for my condition, I do think my insurance company got off pretty good because there were treatments there that I didn’t take, which likely saved them lots of money (no immunosuppression drugs, no BMT, no prophylactic meds, etc). And “maybe” that’s why I had no problems with all the other stuff they paid for me like all the transfusions, the hospitalization stays, and the endo ablation. I had originally wanted only my kids to be insured, but my dad talked to me and said that it should be the other way around because we adults are the ones working. If the kids got sick, we could work and pay for their care, but if we got sick, we would be out of work and no means to pay. Anyway, the people who choose to be uninsured are counted in as “uninsured” but technically, it’s not because they can’t afford it. The gal in the video is a case in point, where she earned enough to pay for insurance but just didn’t want to invest in it. I could fully understand her choice there. However, the one thing I think that was wrong was when she mentioned that she “did” end up in the hospital for a biking accident, but “never paid” for it because she didn’t feel that she should. Now that, I think is wrong. Why she thinks that she “shouldn’t” pay for her hospitalization is beyond me (unless she went to a “free” clinic which it’s purpose is free medical care). But if you go to a hospital that is “not” free, then pay for it. Especially when she could obviously pay for it. If you can’t then that’s another story. That attitude really confounds me, but I know that lots of people think that way. Those kinds of people will drive a good medical system to the ground. BUT, I know there must be some logic to their reasoning like the whole system being a sham, I don’t know. But even here, I thinking the way things would be handled makes a big difference if it’s a trauma case compared to a “disease” case. I don’t mind paying to have a broken leg set, but how much should something like that cost? Would be interesting to see what all the fees are like for various treatments and meds. I know one bill I got for Desferal was $8,000 for a 3 week supply. That’s only “one” med. Most chronically ill patients are one many different meds.
Personally, I think “sometimes” medical insurance is a rip. I guess our propensity to sue everyone left and right has opened the door for insurance companies, but I do think they have contributed to the outrageous health care costs when not only patients seek medical insurance, but also doctors often seek malpractice insurance. The prices start to drive up. And I do know that the way some billing is set up, some medical “businesses” can end up getting paid “twice.”
Anyway, that was longer than I expected to spend this AM. Better dash for now!
Marla
Administrator said,
March 11, 2008 at 9:58 pm
The other day I was talking to Brian about one of his teachers. What caught my attention was not that she was an acupuncturist, but that she was an acupuncturist practicing in “Canada.” Well that perked my interest because of the Brain Surgery video I blogged about recently. That video left me with the impression that “alternative health care is illegal in Canada.” Well, now I see that that is not true. Obviously, if this woman is a practicing acupuncturist in Canada, that means Canada does have alternative practitioners there. So just out of curiosity, I did a short google for naturopaths in Canada. Appears that they have quite a few! Here’s a link to a Canadian Association of Naturopathic Doctors.
http://www.cand.ca/index.php?L=0
What I’m sensing here is that Canadians do have a choice to go to alternative docs and pay out of pocket. I know that naturopaths can also have MD status such as the naturopath I visited here in the Covina area. So it would seem that Canada does have private docs, too.
I do have some contacts in the UK and also Australia, so I may inquire with them regarding their opinion of socialized medicine, if they don’t mind sharing that kind of info with me.
Marla