Poor reviews for health system, good reviews for film.Byline: Susan Palmer The Register-Guard There comes a moment in the movie "Sicko sick·o n. pl. sick·os Slang A deranged, psychotic, or morbidly obsessed person. [From sick1.] ," the new documentary about the failures of the American health American Health Inc. is a company that manufactures health supplements. It is located in Holbrook, New York. One of its products is labeled the "Chewable Original Papaya Enzyme" with the attached registered trademark, "The 'After Meal Supplement'". care system, when a woman learns that the expensive drug she can't afford for a respiratory ailment ail·ment n. A physical or mental disorder, especially a mild illness. costs mere pennies in Cuba. Like several other people whose stories are chronicled in the film, her respiratory ailment is the result of her months as a volunteer at ground zero in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. following the terrorist attacks of 2001. Unable to work and living on Social Security disability payments, she can't afford the medication she needs. Seeing it so cheap in Cuba, she cries. And on Saturday afternoon in a Eugene screening of the movie, so did several audience members. Michael Moore's newest film has opened across the country this weekend to mostly positive reviews. The San Francisco Examiner The San Francisco Examiner is a U.S. daily newspaper. It has been published continuously in San Francisco, California, since the late 19th Century. History 19th century The beginning of the Examiner is a topic of some controversy. said it may be the most important American film made this year. It's not a movie about people who don't have health insurance, but about the 250 million of us who think we're adequately covered. Moore deftly weaves the stories of people who have been failed by the system with examples of how health care works in four other countries where the government has stepped in to manage it. The comparisons are sometimes arresting. There's the American insurance company doctor admitting in a congressional hearing Congressional hearings are the principal formal method by which committees collect and analyze information in the early stages of legislative policymaking. Whether confirmation hearings — a procedure unique to the Senate — legislative, oversight, investigative, or a that she made more money denying lifesaving treatment than she did by making sure people received the care they needed. There's the French doctor explaining that he gets paid more when his patients lower their cholesterol, lose weight or stop smoking. There's the British hospital treating a visiting American with a shoulder injury for free. There's the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. hospital dumping still-sick but indigent indigent 1) n. a person so poor and needy that he/she cannot provide the necessities of life (food, clothing, decent shelter) for himself/herself. 2) n. one without sufficient income to afford a lawyer for defense in a criminal case. patients outside a homeless shelter. Moore's message is clear. In countries such as Canada, Britain, France and Cuba, people receive good care and don't get turned away. The message resonated for Susan Warner Smith and her husband Bruce Smith, who attended the Saturday afternoon screening. "We've had our own encounters with the American health care system," Warner Smith said after the film. Bruce, a prominent lawyer in Eugene, suffered a hemorrhagic stroke hemorrhagic stroke Neurology An ischemic stroke in which blood enters necrotic brain tissue, which may not be accompanied by a worsening clinical status Risks for HS Hemophilia, thrombocytopenia, sickle cell anemia, DIC, anticoagulants, HTN. See Stroke. in 1999. Some treatments recommended by his neurologists were denied by the insurance company as experimental, Warner Smith said. Fortunately, the couple had the resources to pay out of their own pockets for the care he needed, she said. "I suspect Bruce wouldn't be alive today if we hadn't," she said. Smith, who uses a wheelchair and who has lost some eyesight, said he found the movie compelling and was particularly touched by the people who couldn't get access to the medication they needed. The couple wondered why the United States couldn't take what other governments have learned about providing health care and design an efficient system that could work here. "Why can't we have the best of these so everybody has the proper care?" Warner Smith said. The movie was released the same week the Senate Budget Committee began considering a bill sponsored by Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden that would provide health care for most Americans. Wyden, who said he planned to see Moore's film, hopes it gets people talking about the issue. "I'm always in favor of movies, books, radio discussions, all the programs that get people involved in health care," he said. Most people understand what's wrong with American health care - it costs too much and doesn't cover everybody, Wyden said. Wyden said his bill - the Healthy Americans Act The Healthy Americans Act is a United States Senate bill proposed by Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon). The plan would create a universal health care system that would be paid for by both public and private contributions. , co-sponsored by Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah - will slow the escalating costs and cover everyone. Wyden thinks the timing is right for this bill because the business community is on board. Thirteen years ago when the Clinton administration was pushing health care reform, the business community said it wasn't affordable, Wyden said. "Now business is saying, `We can't afford the status quo [Latin, The existing state of things at any given date.] Status quo ante bellum means the state of things before the war. The status quo to be preserved by a preliminary injunction is the last actual, peaceable, uncontested status which preceded the pending controversy. .' You have an alliance today that you didn't have in 1993," he said. The Associated Press |
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