SiCKO

I watched Michael Moore's SiCKO recently and I don't have the same passionate agreement that I had with his last two movies. I think he did a good job in bringing up an important point but he didn't do a very good job in backing up those points with proper analysis.

He basically said:
- US insurance companies are corrupt
- The US should have universal health care
- Countries with universal health care are happier
- Doctors under UHC are doing well and can concentrate on fixing people not requiring payments.
- The taxes are not that bad with UHC
- Patients under UHC are happy, the lines are not as long as we are lead to believe
- People in Cuba get $120 prescriptions for 5 cents
- People in the UK get it for ~$10

I don't have a problem with what he said the problem is he did it in his typical the world is so simple Michael Moore fashion. I do agree that based on the evidence in the film that there is an issue with the insurance companies. But these are private companies which means that their charter is to make a profit not to the welfare of the masses. This means the US should step in like the countries with UHC have. But what does that really mean? According to Moore its pretty simple. I'm not saying he's wrong but I am saying he did a poor job of explaing the cost / benefit of the switch.

How much longer will our waits be? Will this affect the medical research that is being done? Will our doctors be happy with the switch, will the patients? How will it be paid for?

Moore insinuated people in France didn't worry about taxes (they have the #1 ranked UHC in he world). He told us how much people made and we're they lived but left out the taxes all together. He interviewed US expats who are not exactly typical citizens.

Then the prescriptions. He showed how cheap they were in other countries but he never explained why. The truth is research for future prescription drugs are paid with the cost of current ones.Most of these costs are incurred by US citizens. If we regulate the cost of drugs then how will we ensure the free market will produce better drugs for future diseases.

I think the system has significant problems, Moore did a good job of bringing this to our attention but he didn't provide any real solutions. Just a bunch of theatrics that discredit him as a legitimate documentry maker. This may be his goal all along. To make a point and let others figure out the non superficial details. This will be a campaign issue for me in the up coming election. Thanks Mike.