Sicko: The other side

Michael Moore points fingers, and doesn’t allow the accused to defend themselves.

He never interviews actual veterans of the system: doctors, nurses, administrators — only the victims.
Thus we get a bottom-up, not a top-down or a full-frontal view of the creaking system. The film progresses from anecdote to anecdote along predictable lines: American health coverage = BAD, European health coverage = GOOD. He leaves out the boring parts, forgetting that as far as policy-intense health-care issues are concerned, the only things that matter are the boring parts.

Comments

Ed
Why should he allow the accused to defend themselves in his movie? They’ve spent hundreds of millions of dollars doing so over the years in our televisions, radios, newspapers, and in the halls of power in Washington. The “accused” are not poor powerless victims of Michael Moore’s tall tales. They are immensely rich and powerful. Michael Moore is not obliged to present “the other side” because “the other side” has been presenting their lies to the nation for decades. They’ve used their immense wealth to force-feed their terrible self-enriching system on a public cowering in fear at being left without healthcare. They’ve left us with a system that has no equal in unfairness. Why should he have interviewed anyone other than the victims? In a documentary on the horrors of Auschwitz, why should any sensible reporter bother with the side of the SS guards? Why even bother to look for a “balance” when obviously there is none to be found?
Eduardo B. Gimenez
Rich, MD
Ed,
Likening US healthcare and medical practitioners to the holocaust and it’s agents is offensive at best, if not generally sickening and nauseating.
You should be ashamed of yourself.
Signed,
Not immensely rich or powerful.
Anonymous
Would anyone do a documentary on education and not have alot of teacher input?
Anonymous
I will not acknowledge this loon (Moore) whose purpose is to self-enrich while advancing his personal liberal agenda. Opinions are like belly buttons, and it is fair to say that while he has a large belly-button, size doesn’t matter.
Mr. Moore is not exposing the wrongs of the health care system, he is railing against the American way and our capitalist system. His movies are not documentaries, they are political presentations and Hollywood’s idea of entertainment.
This film is just another attempt to scare the public; Al Gore had already taken the topic of global warming so what was Michael to do? Maybe he and Al can team up to form “Moore-Gore” productions. Then again, maybe Al will throw his hat in the ring and we will have “Gore-Moore” on the ballot!
Anonymous
I agree. I am surprised he has not indicted America as a whole. His criticism is surely not confined to 9/11, GM, etc.
Here is an idea for Mr Moore: How about a film exposing the evils of American Imperialism? The Bush family would be the villains of course, and with the third Bush family term, “The Rise of the Third Reich” seems a natural title.
Mr. Moore could interview Johnny Depp, the scissor-lips that stated:
“America is dumb, it’s like a dumb puppy that has big teeth that can bite and hurt you, aggressive” “My daughter is four, my boy is one. I’d like them to see America as a toy, a broken toy. Investigate it a little, check it out, get this feeling and then get out,”
Mr. Moore could then flee to France with his ill-begotten gains, where he can indulge in as much fine food and free health care as he can consume. I’m sure Mr. Depp wouldn’t mind having him as a neighbor, maybe he would even offer to trim the hedges!
Anonymous
And Eduardo Gimenez, are you residing in France?
Anonymous
Wow, I can tell you are a God fearing person Anon 10:53 #2, no doubt blogging in after church this a.m.
You cannot let political spin and isolated and unrebutted stories dictate policy.
You would wonder why anyone does medical missions outside the US with all our problems. Or why the Shrine Hospital for example flies burned children in from far away places like Russia for expensive care for free when we cannot take care of our own. Of course there is room for improvement, but why do people risk their lives to cross the border to come to the USA. Yes it is about democracy, capitalism, and freedom.
Why don’t you wake up and stop being brainwashed?
IndieRN
I can think of a couple reasons why not to speak with the health care system providers, of which I am a part.
1. This picture is supposed to be inflammatory(duh)and any physician or nurse that would speak out against the system could be
(pick your poison): fired, black balled, labeled as a quack and/or disgruntled employee, loose patients and money. These factors would let the other side discount the people in the trenches willing to stick their necks out. I also think the average American will more readily identify with another average American than a healthcare provider. That would be the vehicle Moore uses to advance his agenda.
2. We as healthcare providers have been compromised. Some of them have willingly been led astray out of fear for their jobs: the almost 3 million silent RNs that keep doing whatever admin tells them. They refuse to exert their power, in fight with each other until all respect has been lost and now leave the profession in droves. The average age of a nurse is 52. They are sheep.
Physicians come in multiple varieties: those that have gone into private practice without hospital privileges(as a business decision due to insurance)and remove themselves from the dialog. The physicians in the ER trenches just dealing with the daily, burning out with the ER nurses( I was one)until they don’t know who to rage against.These physicians are victims of their own inaction, as are the nurses.
Then there is the special class of physicians and nurses. The ones who work for insurance companies and the like that actually participate in causing these problems.
Regardless of your political persuasion you must acknowledge we have a problem and we are doing nothing about it real fast.On
midnight 1/1/2011 boomers will start turning 75 at a rate of 1 every 7.1 seconds for 13 years adding 75.8 million seniors to Medicare. That’s just the ones who are citizens. Account for the costs of illegal immigrants and add in the working poor and we have a perfect storm forming.
Of course, if your political persuasion is “I got mine, you get yours” then never mind. They will come for you during the revolution.
Anonymous
That or if your an older physician the statement is this with further decline in reimbursement and government intervention “I made mine, good luck with yours” which further exacerbates the problems by taking more providers out of the equation all together.
Anonymous
Anon 10:53
You are an idiot. You think that pointing out one case where the system failed proves anything?? Are you suggesting that there is not one case in Britain or Canada or France where a patient has died because of not being treated. If this were the case and you were not an idiot, then make this argument that there has never been anyone in these countries not to receive care then needed in a timely fashion and I would really listen to you. But the truth is you have listed one death in the US and ignored any and all deaths caused by inadequate care in the other countries. Looking at one side and ignoring the others is the epitome of bias and you are inhibiting those of us who really are looking for a solution with your spin and scare tactics.
Anonymous
Hello everybody!!! My name is Anon 10:53 #2, one time there was a girl that was killed in a car accident. I think we should outlaw cars and ride around on bicycles covered with pillows! Yay look at me – I’m helping solve the problem!
Anonymous
Anon 7:10…what you are is so very immature that you dont even yet realize there really is a problem. You are one of them that it will have to smack in the ass before you admit it..
Anonymous
Anon 9:19,
You are wrong. I am well aware there is a problem but pointing out one case where a system doesn’t work is pointless. Give statistics, studies, you know like lots of single cases that are added together and show those cases together are worse than what would exist in the system you are advocating. That’s how you make a logical argument. Not by saying “Well this one time this happened”
Anonymous
The “other side”? Sicko isn’t a newspaper article, it is advocacy journalism.
As it is, the views of the insurance industry are already over represented in the media and in their influence with state and federal legislatures.
You also make a mistake in assuming that their must be two view points and that those view points are equally valid. If one person says 2+2=4 and another says it’s 8, there is no need to include the latter. Not all viewpoints are factual, nor is the answer splitting the difference, 6 is not the correct answer either.
Ed
Rich MD said: Ed, Likening US healthcare and medical practitioners to the holocaust and it’s agents is offensive at best, if not generally sickening and nauseating.
___________________________
Ed’s response,
Why are you distorting what I said? I did not liken healthcare and medical practitioners to the holocaust and its agents. What I said was so clear in the clarity of the language that your comments are nothing else than a vile attempt to distort what is rally so clear. This is what I said and it had to do with “PRINCIPLES OF REPORTING” and not medical practioners:
“Why should he have interviewed anyone other than the victims? In a documentary on the horrors of Auschwitz, why should any sensible reporter bother with the side of the SS guards? Why even bother to look for a “balance” when obviously there is none to be found?”
NOW GET THAT STATEMENT AND PARSE IT. SEE IF YOU CAN FIND ANYTHING OFFENSIVE OR ERRONEOUS WITH IT!
Eduardo B. Gimenez

Sicko: The other side

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