Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Sick on Sicko

Granted, I haven't watched the movie, but I've thoroughly enjoyed the reviews. In particular this one. Not so much because it blasts Moore's incursion into Cuba
The fantasy that lies behind Michael Moore's movie is that of the caring and
competent state that eschews self-interest and provides efficiently for all its
citizens' health needs. Where such delusions end up is not in the airbrushed
fantasy of Sicko, but in the nightmare reality of Cuba.
but because it addresses what for me is the fundamental issue with socialized healthcare
The basic moral issue is that under a purely socialized system your body, and
your life, is no longer your own.
Peter Foster minces no words as he attacks Moore not only on his fact twisting to fit his message, but more so on the fact that he takes away from an issue that needs addressing: the uninsured.
It's not that health-care policy is not an important issue in any modern
society, it's that Mr. Moore does not address it in a serious way.
According to Sicko, what is scandalous about America's greater reliance on
private health insurance is not that so many have no insurance, but that the
system makes its profits by systematically denying the needs of its clients.
I struggle with the notion of socialized healthcare. I don't think the goverment has a duty to provide healthcare, while I do think it has a duty to provide education. Like everything else in a democracy, this is an issue of choice. I want to have the choice of choosing my healthcare insurance, my hospital and my doctor. I want to have the choice of choosing which school I go to or send my kids to go to. I do not want the state dictating my decisions or deciding for me. I don't favor a nannay state. Heck, I don't even agree with Social Security.

As a nation we have a problem, and it is not that doctors and corporations want to make money. The first problem we have is the uninsured - if a socialized medicine ever comes around it should be to serve those who cannot afford insurance and the vulnerable populations.

The second problem is that we as a people need to take back control over our healthcare. Corporations have no right telling us what we can or cannot do in terms of seeking treatment for an ailment and provisions need to be created for this. Whether its new clauses, extra insurance, etc. if it is medically necessary they should be duty bound to pay for it.

From all reviews I've read, it seems Mr. Moore has done what he loves to do best, find a small group of people that fit his hypotheses and present them as evidence. Random sampling, internal validity or external validity are issues that never came to mind in this "experiment" of his which leads his results to not be generalizable to a whole population.

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Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Independence Day

Low and behold the appropriate words for today were uttered by a President I sincerely dislike:
"Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your
country"
More than likely Kennedy did not write the words, but whoever did fully understood what loving your country is all about.

Today it's all about taking and receiving and not about giving. People cosntantly feel that the government owes them, continuously seeking benefits from the government. Free education, free healthcare, lower taxes, etc. But why do we not give first? Why do we not "do for our country?" If we put as much effort into doing for our country as we do in complaining we would probably be at a better place. Sacrifice is too much to ask for these days.

Our forefathers truly asked what they could do for their country, and managed to give their country their best effort - independence and sovereignty. Rather than looking at how green the grass is on the other side, I ask you today to realize what a great nation we live in; how many freedoms we have, how many opportunities this nation has to offer to those who are willing to sacrifice for it.

If we all started asking ourselves what we can do for the US, and started acting on it, then the US would automatically follow doing for us.

Happy Fourth of July!

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