Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Health Insurance? Are we just padding CEO's pockets?

I finally watched SICKO, by Michael Moore and I must say it makes me feel like an idiot. I would encourage anyone who hasn't seen it to watch it (but not because I want you to feel like an idiot!) I never realized that the insurance companies that work for profit and free enterprise deny people coverage or services that are needed and they know this, but the more they save the insurance company the more they get paid. The are physicians... where's the hypocratic oath? My understanding is that doctors are no longer required to take it. This was admitted to by former physicians working for insurance companies that finally got a conscience.
In the documentary, there were firemen from 9/11 and those rescue workers that are suffering with ailments as a result of doing their job that day, that have been denied services. There was even one woman that was denied coverage because of a yeast infection. Not some terminal illness, but a quick, curable, minor infection that many women experience.
The film also compared our healthcare system to that of other countries like Canada, France, England, and even Cuba. We have a higher infant mortality rate than Cuba! Can you believe that?
I believe this is the reason I worry about the aging baby boomers and the quality of health care that will be available to them.
There seems to be a driving force between government and these privatized insurance comapanies; I think it's greed.
I think everyone should have the right to healthcare.
I knew and worked with a woman from England and she said she missed living there because of the free healthcare available. She said the waits weren't as long as everybody said. She also said that she couldn't afford healthcare here in the United States.
We all have heard about Americans crossing the border to Canada to get prescriptions, and this is illegal, but people are forced to do whatever they have to, to receive treatment.
In some instances I wish we did have universal healthcare, but I still question it. (My paranoia again.)

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