MM compares the US to Canada a lot because we're neighbours. He likes to show how things are so different between the two countries; gun violence, terrorist fear, healthcare. And he asks the question, why is it better in Canada than the US?

Fact is, the Canadian Healthcare system isn't perfect. We are plagued with having most of our hospitals overrun, and under-staffing issues; But they sure as fuck are not going to leave you lying on a hospital floor, coughing up blood till you die. If this lady was brought into a Canadian hospital, she would have been looked at immediately, and she might still be alive today.

In 1987, I got sick in France and had a fever of 103, I was taken to a French hospital in Nice, admitted immediately, test run, problem diagnosed, and treatment started fast. I spent 3 days there, one day they had a nurse with me 24 hours until the fever broke. I was released with meds and anti-biotics.


Cost was nothing out of my pocket. The French are very compassionate, they told me the care was a gift from the French. I have never forgotten what they did for me and their excellent care.

Long story short, I was impressed.

Didn`t kill you but it certainly did some kind of brain damage!

conspiracy theory....the french knew u would be coming back to USA and boasting about such services...they knew what they were doing and wrote it off.....JK great story though. Very shocked they did not send u invoice

No shit. That explains a lot.

When i lived in Ecuador and got sick a few times, i was impressed by the healthcare i received there. BUT i went to everything private and paid cash but i never had a bill break $100 and i received top of the line care, private nurse, high tech imaging machine...

i had a doctor come to my apartment in Guayaquil, he hammered a nail into the wall and i had a IV drip going. I had some crazy food poisoning for a weird yogurt that has crazy bacteria in it(of course i did not know that this was teh case and the locals grow up on the yogurt) and i had a nurse for 24 hours, she only wanted $10 but when she left the next day i gave her $50 and she actually came back at nite to check on me.

Point of the story, if u go to Ecuador, do not get PERSA YOGURT. Americans are not use to the bacteria level lol

I would expect nothing less from you. Unreal

is this movie in theaters ? i haven't seen the listing .. i want to see it

hey MikeVega,

comes out the 29th in USA....you can download it for FREE online...

Comes out on the 29th

I don't have a problem with the hospitals around here that I have went too. They clearly state if it is an emergency or a woman is giving birth to a child, the hospital must provide care for them even if they don't have insurance or not able to pay.

You should know to have some sort of insurance in place for your family.

Let me tell you a story.

One of my best friends here in Los Angeles has been diagnosed with congestive heart failure. He was going in and out of a doctors office and paying for everything out of his own pocket because EVERY insurance company in the US that he tried to buy insurance from denied him for a preexisting condition.

He is a US citizen and has paid taxes in this country for many years but was born in England. He can not afford health care in the US any longer as he is disabled and can not work a steady job and they will not let him purchase insurance. He has been denied treatment 2 times when he was almost dead. He finally went back to England and from there he also went to France where he has been treated for his condition and kept alive. He goes back and forth every so often for testing and medication. The British and French government reimburse him for his flight. Now you tell me what is wrong with this picture?
If he had relied on the US for treatment he would be DEAD.

:2 cents:

Dont know we have full insurance on our family. Didnt pay a dime when we just had our new baby. 3 and a half days in the hospital and was all covered by insurance.

i am located in NY and i have a PPO but its a lil over $400 a month BUT i never get denied anything and i can see the best doctors. Any medicine i want costs me $10 or less....

for all those who do not have health insurance here, if you are self employed, or LLC or S-corp you should look into joining an association in your area. Go in on their group policy and get better rates that way....something to look into

if you are located in NY or Long Island you can join http://longislandassociation.com/
rates from like $200 to $500 a month depening on what u go with...only $35 fee to join teh LIA

my child had a high fever and I spent the day trying to get his fever down, and when I called a help line to see what else to do, they called ambulance for me, and when we got to the hospital we waited for 3 hours and his fever went back to normal.."i guess the trip outside in the cold" and we just left with permission from the nurse in waiting room.

emergency room is always packed and takes serveral hours to get in.

Canada

A couple of years ago my wife and I got new insurance, and we asked the agent specifically if it would cover her having another baby (we were very adamant in asking about pregnancy/labor coverage).

The agent told us 100% it would after we carried the insurance for a year.

Over a year later she gets pregnant and guess what, the insurance company tells us NOTHING is covered. Apparently they sent us an "update" to the contract which took out all pregnancy eligibility from the plan (which I had never seen or recieved).

So not only did we pay 900 a month into a plan we couldn't use, we had to go out-of-pocket for the birth, which ended up being a c-section and expensive.

We are trying to fight it but it's like battling a gigantic monster and we're fucking broke from paying the hospital bills.

Fuck those fuckers.

That's because your wife has a great job with insurance plan ...

If you were single, you would be whoring for healthcare :2 cents:

People die in hospital parking lots in ever city. It happens here to man :-(

It's sad but it happens. Who will pay for their hospital bill? It aint cheap treating him

Thats understandable:
"Location: Hell"

wow....in the face of death of a young child..you can still manage to pull t his out

i must say im impressed...i thought i was a hard ass

If they had said we have no insurance, their baby would still be alive.. very sad. I'm paying about $38k out of pocket right now. I make too much money to get any government (fed or state) assistance. I will look into some sort of self employed group insurance as I have ongoing issues/needs. But I'm not too hopefull of getting it to be honest.

i like michael moore's documentaries because they make you think, but i also take them with a grain of salt because he has a strong bias towards the subject matters he covers and never presents the pros to his cons.

I liked the movie because it went beyond just people not having insurance. Insurance companies fuck us all the time. They tell doctors what treatments they can do, they tell them what drugs are allowed, and they basically run the hospitals. I've had multiple friends have to leave the hospital early after surgery because the insurance company refused to pay for the days the doctor told them they should be staying.

Whatever happens with healthcare, one this needs to be changed immediately. INSURANCE COMPANIES SHOULD HAVE NO SAY IN YOUR MEDICAL TREATMENT. The doctor should do what they feel is best, and the insurance company should pay.

wow, thats fucking funny :1orglaugh

I tend to believe that a doctor's hippocratic oath would have not denied service to someone who needed it, private or public.
WG

Where can you find it?

i got my copy from here:
http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3715383/..._Michael_Moore

its perfect dvd quality

A few years ago I went to the emergency room with severe pains in my lower abdomen, with no insurance. They assumed it was kidney stones since the symptoms were exactly the same. They gave me lots of drugs for the pain and kept me in the ER while trying to arrange transfer to a charity hospital. A few hours later I "crashed". Not sure what that means. I was out of it. It's just what they told me. Turns out my appendix had ruptured. They nixed the transfer and brought me straight to surgery. I spent about 10 days in an induced coma in intensive care, and had to have another surgery. Two months later I was released.

They never charged me a dime.

Just because you hear a few horror stories about bad medical care, that doesn't mean it's some kind of national policy. As someone stated above, if you're in immediate danger they are required to treat you.

I bet this woman's husband wishes that was true.

And the same exact thing can be said in your situation: Just because you hear a few good stories about adequate medical care, that doesn't mean it's some kind of national normalcy.

Yes, he knows.

No, he is not going to return the money.

And, when he found out it was Moore who sent the money, he was angry.

Ungrateful piece of shit.

15 million illegal Mexicans. None of them have a real doctor. They get a hangnail and go to the ER. Who do you think pays for that?

Woman dies in ER waiting room, 911 operators refuse to help her. Janitors clean up her vomit as she lay dying.

http://www.wnbc.com/health/13503186/detail.html

Disgusting. Someone should go to jail for this.

Well, Americans:
What, nothin' better to do?
Why don't you kick yourself out?
You're an immigrant too.

Who's usin' who?
What should we do?
Well you can't be a pimp
And a prostitute too

Whenever I travel to the USA I buy the most expensive medical insurance available, even if I go there just for a week. Before seeing this movie I had heard some horror stories, but not this bad.

This movie is a real jaw dropper. Its really terrible to have to worry about medical expenses, ever.

Free healthcare is a human right. Just like free education is a human right.

Is it a benefit to society if the next einstein dies at birth because of lack of medical care, or won't reach his full potential because he can't get education?

Too bad some corrupt politicians don't see it that way.

you can't be serious with this comment.

the child could have been admitted and the mother could have been billed (at triple the amount since her insurance didn't cover that hospital in their plan) for the emergency visit. hence, the child would have most likely lived.

hospitals bill those without insurance all the time for an emergency visit (and most don't pay because the bill is too high therefore sending the person into collections).

This is capitalism. If you make good money - you should be able to buy better things than people who make less. Why is health any different?

Though the movie brings up a more disturbing question ( at least for me ) - that doctors give you medical advice not based on their medical expertise but based on what makes sense financially.

BTW, you never get denied coverage when you're getting health insurance from your work. So, unless one doesn't have a decent job - you'll be covered. After the retirement age - there is state and federal insurance programs that'll cover almost 100%

This is probably the most realistic assessment of this and other Michael Moore movies.