Sicko

I come from the UK. But I now live in the USA.

I have never ever heard of anyone in the UK being denied life saving treatment by the National Health Service.

I have never heard of anyone in the UK who was badly disabled being left without good treatment and care.

I have heard of lots of people with cancer getting the best (often also the most costly) drugs to treat them at no cost to them at all. I have heard of lots of people who needed it who have been in hospital for days, weeks and months at no cost to them at all.

I myself was in hospital whenever I needed to be, almost on demand, when I was sick for nearly two years - I only had to turn up at the Emergency Room and they would get me a bed within the hour - no charge, no stress, no hassles.

I also have had to have lots of medications during my lifetime but I never paid more than $14 for any one of them - which is less than the copay I currently have to pay for every prescription I get in the USA - and yet we apparently have "excellent" health insurance!!

I do know that the facts and figures show that the health care system in the UK is better in a great many ways than that in the US. For example, UK babies die at birth less often than in the US, people live longer in the UK than in the US etc. See Michael Moore's website for more details at
http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/checkup/

Since I came here, to the US, I have personally heard of a Fire Fighter (a good friend of my husband's best friend) who was in a car crash on the way to work, who was left completely disabled and had to rely on his friends and a website to raise money for his treatment because he bust the limit on his Health Insurance.

I have a good friend, Tabatha, who has two daughters who are "uninsurable" because one has cancer and the other has a muscular-skeletal disorder.

I have an aquaintance who (despite the fact that she completely supports the US Health System) says her mother has also been denied insurance due to pre-existing conditions.

I personally had to pay more in CO PAY for my teeth to have a crown than my Aunt did to have her crown in the UK. And she paid the FULL PRICE in the UK, as she went private for her health treatment.

Also, although I am convinced of a link between MMR and autism (in the UK this view is far more prevalent among doctors than it is over here, and I often wonder why), I was put in a position where I HAD to allow my son to have the MMR vaccine. I tried for months to find a doctor who would be willing to administer the separate vaccines to my son (I had personally managed to find a pharmacy who would provide these separate vaccines to a doctor's office, at my own personal cost) but not a single doctor in Georgia was willing to administer the separate vaccines for me. If I didnt allow my son to be immunised against Measles, Mumps, Rubella by the age of 2 years, I was told my son would not be allowed to go to school in Georgia. So I had to allow him to have the MMR despite the fact that I was terrified he might get autism.

I thought this was the "Land of the Free" - I thought here, as a parent, I would have the choice about something as important as this?

It seems to me that most of Michael Moore's facts in 'Sicko' are pretty indisputable, given that he has put them up on his website with all the supporting evidence.. and given that even Fox News has praised his documentary/film!

It seems that the Drugs and Healthcare firms are making lots of money at our expense and yet are not there for us when we really need them. The Insurers find excuses to drop us once we get a serious illness, they deny healthcare insurance to anyone with any of a long list of existing complaints. The Drugs companies seem to be charging a great deal more for drugs in this country than in the countries where they have a nationalized health service - and are putting out false information about why that is the case.

I love so many things about living in the USA, but the Private Healthcare system is NOT one of them.. I hope the next election puts that right!