Sicko

Wow.

Am I ever thankful I live in Canada.

I'll have to look up how much a laparoscopic cholecystectomy costs in the US. And one night in the hospital. Plus my pain-killer subscription (of which I thankfully only needed to take 3 pills). Cause here, I think I had to pay just over a dollar for the pain-killers after what my medical coverage wouldn't pay for.

The US health care system is just so flawed, and while I know the Canadian system has its issues, remind me to never complain about it again, or at least be thankful that it's nowhere near as bad as the US.

Sicko also makes France look very inviting to live. I've always known about the free health care and college, but I didn't know child care was also "free" (works out to $1/hour or so). They also have a minimum 5 weeks vacation there. I'm self-employed so that wouldn't really affect me either, but I know lots of people with only 2 weeks per year that would be very green-eyed when they hear about that.

But then you'd have to hang out with a bunch of cheese eating surrender monkeys, and no one wants to do that.

Considering my daughter has a fever as we speak, some of the parts of the movie were tough to watch. My heart went out to those who lost their children due to system regulations. I could not imagine the outrage I'd feel if my child, spouse, or friend was denied care. As a guy who's been burned (not literally) by corporations in the past, it irks me to see how this bureaucracy and misinformation has created such a brutal system where even people who are paying good premiums are denied the fundamental right to receive treatment due to the bottom line. And to see how rich these corporations are getting... yeesh.

As for whether universal health care is better than the US's HMO system, I think the proof is in the numbers. Canada, France, and The UK have lower infant mortality rates and longer life expectancy than the US. And one thing I didn't know was so does Cuba.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_infant_mortality_rate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy

Now I know Micheal Moore always adds drama to his documentaries for the sake of drama, and I always find his movies to be like essays (where there's likely 2 sides to a story but that's not the point, the point is to present evidence to support your side). He always finds evidence that proves his point, and some of it (as we saw in F9/11) is pretty convincing. But whether you like Mike or not, this movie will boil your blood if you live in the US and you see how simple everything can be just over the border in Canada. I know it would boil mine.

Thankfully if my blood actually boiled in Canada, I wouldn't have to pay squat to get it looked after.

*********** EDIT*************

Okay I found a couple different sources but in the US my surgery would have cost roughly $9000. Wow.