The coverage and commentary set off by the release of Sicko, Michael Moore’s documentary about the failures of the U.S. healthcare system, was certainly enlightening–as an example of how corporate media continue to twist and restrict the much-needed debate on healthcare reform.
Aside from an occasional concession that 46 million uninsured Americans are indeed problematic, the media’s hype-filled conversation avoided the issues, echoes old myths and effectively marginalizes popularly backed proposals for change. One could almost get the sense, watching the reporting on the documentary, that the real problem facing Americans was…Michael Moore.
On ABC‘s Good Morning America (6/13/07), Chris Cuomo dwelled on how Moore “likes to place blame…. He blames the industry, he blames the government and he blames the media for not asking tough questions.” That Cuomo sees being critical of government and big business as an inherently questionable trait would seem to back up Moore’s skepticism about journalism.
Fox‘s Sean Hannity (Hannity’s America, 6/17/07) said Moore “will take any measure to glorify and promote himself and his own personal agenda,” and has “launched attacks on just about everybody and anything that steps in his path.” Hannity later called Moore “a pathetic propagandist” who is “not even any good at it” (Hannity & Colmes, 6/19/07). Hannity’s occasional substitute, radio host Curtis Sliwa (5/10/07), even brought up Moore’s weight, claiming that he’d believe some of Sicko’s accusations if Moore “could lose the 500 pounds.”
“Getting people who don’t like Moore to give Sicko a chance will be a challenge,” USA Today‘s Anthony Breznican wrote (6/22/07), since “conservatives have used Moore’s name to blast dissenters.” And the media are helpfully perpetuating the Moore distraction.
When mainstream media bother to address the problems and proposals of the healthcare debate, many regurgitate common myths. Single-payer healthcare, the universal healthcare program proposed in the bill HR 676, is frequently described as “government-run” or “socialized” healthcare or medicine (e.g., USA Today, 6/13/07; CNN, 6/25/07; O’Reilly Factor, 6/27/07; Wall Street Journal, 6/28/07), even though the Canadian-style system involves private doctors, hospitals and other caregivers who are merely paid for by the government.
Still, commentators and pundits continue to scare the public with inaccurate accusations. On CNBC (Kudlow & Co., 6/20/07), right-wing filmmaker Stuart Browning mourned the imaginary loss of personal choice, saying Moore and HR 676 supporters “advocate systems in which we would not be able to spend our own money on our own bodies.” Fox‘s Morton Kondracke (Beltway Boys, 6/24/07) warned of a slippery slope from single-payer care to a socialist dictatorship, saying that “Moore basically wants socialized everything and the movie neglects to tell you that Cuba is a dictatorship and an economic basket case.” (That “basket case” grew at a rate of 9.5 percent in 2006, according to the CIA World Factbook.)
In the face of this media demonization, universal healthcare is remarkably popular among the public. In a recent CNN poll (5/4-6/07), 64 percent of respondents agreed that “government should provide a national health insurance program for all Americans, even if this would require higher taxes.” And in a recent CBS/New York Times poll (2/23-27/07), 64 percent wanted the federal government to “guarantee health insurance for all” (FAIR Action Alert, 6/25/07).
Despite the poll numbers, journalists still often portray government-funded healthcare as a marginal idea. L.A. Times reporter Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar (6/22/07) even reported that supporting Moore’s single-payer plan could be “political poison with the larger electorate” for Democratic presidential candidates. Alonso-Zaldivar’s colleague, columnist Ronald Brownstein (whose wife works for John McCain), acknowledged the popularity of a universal healthcare system (7/1/07), but said:
It’s true that it’s difficult to change a system that creates billions of dollars in profits for a private industry. When you’ve got corporate media distorting reality on behalf of that industry, that’s when it becomes nearly impossible.
Sorry Caroline but I do not agree with what is said at least with regard to French healthcare system vs US healthcare system. And sorry for being so blunt but all CNN, LA Times, CBS, Fox and the rest of the gang don’t know Jack of what they are talking about when they compare French and US systems (their blatant mistakes speak for themselves). Moore was closer to reality. Who am I to say that and why do I say that? Because I know for a fact that it is extremely difficult to understand both systems without working in them for a while. Why? Because “been there done that”! And before I go further, let me give a detail about myself that will probably give weight to what I am about to say. Having both French and US citizenship, I grew up in both countries and happened to work in both healthcare systems (and I really mean working INSIDE both systems both as healthcare provider and manager in the pharmaceutical industry)
Moore has made little mistakes in his movie but not that much in fact. In reality what matters is not a question of politics, it is a question of what is true and what is not true. US Insurances, brainwashed people and MDs might probably not like it but there is only one truth with regard to this healthcare mess in the US. This truth lays in the adult and infants mortality rate in the US compared to other countries.
Now THE question that is not being asked by the press about the US healthcare system is the question of impartiality. NO one in the US would think it is OK for a judge, as good as he/she can be, to be in charge of judging his/her own child’s case, or his/her own divorce, right? So why on earth people in the US don’t realize that the fact that healthcare insurances are running hospitals, clinics and healthcare networks is utterly wrong, mess up their health and jeopardize their lives? There is a blatant conflict of interest here and nobody seems to get it. What do you think happens when insurances’ share holders are asking for more profit? Insurances are cutting on their medical expenses! And who suffers from these cuts? The patients who are paying very expensive premiums, and awfully insane out of pocket expenses! Period. So one can try and demonize the French system by calling it “socialist” or even “communist”, (and considering what the words “socialist” or “communism” trigger in any US citizen’s mind, it is quite easy to understand why these words have been so carefully picked) but if one thinks honestly about it for just about a couple of second, it is easy to realize that there is no better way to guarantee and secure impartiality than making sure of separating the healthcare expenses payers from the healthcare providers. Besides it also guarantees the independence of healthcare providers (hence the freedom for them to give the patient what is right for them, not what fits in the share holders budget.)
Now some common mistakes:
-Healthcare coverage is free in France, it only relies on income taxes. WRONG! Healthcare insurance is mandatory and this mandatory coverage percentage is the same for everybody, so it is withdrawn from everybody’s paycheck and it is proportional to their income (poor are paying less and rich are paying more). Now if any “well informed” journalist wants to discuss that, I can always show one of my pay-stubs and I’ll be proven right in a blink of an eye. Just so you know also, premium prices for middle class salaries are about the same price there. What dramatically changes is what coverage you get for your money!
-French healthcare system covers 100% of the expenses: WRONG. It covers about 80% of the total expenses but, besides plastic surgery, all problems justifying an hospitalization and/or surgery are covered in full except for 10$/day out of pocket (covering food expenses of the patient).
Now how come French people don’t get thousands of € in medical expenses? Because MDs there are not being overpaid (yeah that the part of responsibility in the US healthcare system fiasco, US Mds don’t want to hear anything about…) .There, as long as it is reasonable, one doesn’t pay more or less if they spend 10 or 30 min in the doctor’s office, so the latter takes the time to thoroughly assess what is going on with this patient and for this, they get paid…. 100€ maximum with an overall out of pocket cost of 7€ for the patient (far from the 300$/10 min we get here, right? And let’s be honest and serious for a minute here, as a healthcare provider myself, how thorough can you be in 10 minutes really? Good question isn’t it?! So is this 10 min joke worth 300$? Certainly NOT and we all know it!) As for hospital MDs, they get a salary so, again as long as it is reasonable, no bureaucrat gets to ask them to cut short on the consults or on what medicine they prescribe.
Now last but not least, the cost of medicines in the US…. Hum, embarrassing really. In France again laboratories cannot do whatever they want: The price of each medicine and its marketing authorization are negotiated altogether with the authorities (equivalent of the FDA) and the price they get is proportional to what medical benefits this medicine brings to the table: umpteenth beta-blocker not better than the previous ones? The laboratory gets a lame price. Major breakthrough in cancer? Jackpot! Isn’t that fair enough? Research efforts are being rewarded, plagiarism is being discouraged. Bottom line, here even generics here are 3 times more expensive than brand medicines in France…
However, guess what? French research works just fine, Laboratories are working just fine, no insurance is bankrupt and healthcare branch of CPAM (healthcare and retirement national insurance) is healthy… Ooops! How come?
Here is the US equation: Too expensive Medicines + Overpaid MDs + greedy insurances managing the entire healthcare system + bureaucrats deciding who lives and who dies = Cheap care + high premiums = high copays + high co-insurance percentages + more people without medical coverage + a highest mortality rate!
The truth that no one wants to hear is that USA has an adult death rate 50% more important than France ( in percentage of the adult population) and an infant death rate almost 100% more important (98%) than in France (and even higher than countries like Cuba or Croatia!) …. That’s where reality is and no matter who you vote for or what CNN says or what is on TV or whether you like to hear it or not: these are the facts and this is a shame for the most powerful country on the face of the earth. Period.
Now what are we talking about? Are we gonna keep on repeating like parrots what is said on TV or what politicians are telling us while our kids keep on dying? Or are we going to be able to think for ourselves and do the right thing?
Care to check for yourself what I am saying? Here are the United na tion figures http://www.healthmetricsandevaluation.org/tools/data-visualization/adult-mortality-rates-country-and-sex-mapped-over-time-global-1970-2010#/overview/explore
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_infant_mortality_rate
Good way of telling, and pleasant paragraph to take data regarding my presentation focus, which i am going to convey in university.