Home » Library » Features » 10 Facts You Never Knew from "Sicko"
Michael Moore's "Sicko" recently moved into third place among documentaries, taking the spot of Al Gore's previous record holder, “An Inconvenient Truth,� and behind Moore’s previous film “Fahrenheit 9/11" and Warner Independent Pictures' “March of the Penguins.� This fact alone makes this movie worth seeing. But, the fact that this movie also is controversial doesn't hurt ticket sales. "Sicko" is one of the most talked about films of the year.
While most movie-goers see faults within the film, the truth is that Moore simply reflects reality. Nothing in his film is new, exciting, or even shocking if the viewer has read local, regional, or international newspapers or if the viewer has kept up with problems incurred within the health insurance and medical industry over the past few years. The following ten facts are supported by reliable sources such as the United Nations, the Commonwealth studies, and more. Hopefully this information will show that Moore did, indeed, have his facts correct in Sicko, even though his delivery might seem political and/or self-serving.
There's plenty of opportunity to purchase health insurance in the U.S., and Sicko doesn't focus on the 47 million Americans (about one in every six citizens) who don't have that insurance. Instead, Moore hones in on the middleman (the insurance industry) that stands in the way of delivering health care to patients in a humanitarian spirit. While some critics state that Sicko brings a few aberrant instances where this denial has resulted in a complete "breakdown in humaneness," the reality is that a person can find many cases where lack of insurance equaled lack of care.
With that said, it's difficult to argue that General Motors now spends more on its employees' health insurance than on steel. But, at least GM offers insurance...a recent Employer Health Benefits Survey released by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust showed that 60 percent of US firms offered health benefits in 2007, down by nine percentage points on companies that offered health care packages in 2000. Additionally, premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance rose an average of 6.1 percent in 2007, less than the 7.7 percent increase reported last year but still higher than the increase in workers’ wages or the overall inflation rate.
One only needs to look at the amount of money that health insurance lobbyists spend in Washington to understand the situation between health insurance companies and the federal government. Since 2003, the amount spent on health insurance lobbies increased by almost $1,000,000 per year. Watch the news, as you'll learn how deeply imbedded health insurance lobbyists are even at the state and local levels.
The above heading is a tagline from the "Sicko" Web site, and it's true. The risks are high when a person turns to doctors and hospitals to remedy a situation that might have been prevented. This is why doctors and hospitals are the third leading cause of death in America, according to a study published by Dr. Barbara Starfield of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. The two leading causes of death include heart disease and cancer. Since America’s health care system is really a sick-care system, it's up to Americans to stay well.
Moore isn't the first American to travel to Cuba, as thousands of U.S. tourists already travel to this Caribbean island. Yes, it's illegal for U.S. citizens to visit Cuba, but many tourists state that sneaking around behind Washington's back is part of the thrill. According to this CNN news story, some Americans sail to Cuba, but most fly through Canada, Mexico, the Bahamas or Jamaica. Cuban tourist cards can be purchased at airports in these countries, and customs officials usually stamp only these loose-leaf visas, not the permanent pages of U.S. passports.
According to USA Today, half of Cuba's 6,000 doctors fled Cuba when Fidel Castro came to power in 1959. Cuba now has 60,000 physicians, or one for every 136 people on this island. They have so many doctors that Cuba exports them for humanitarian purposes to other poor countries. Today, 14,000 Cuban doctors provide free treatment to Venezuela’s poor and 3,000 Cuban medical staff worked in the aftermath of last year’s Kashmir earthquake. When Hurricane Katrina ripped through the southern United States in August 2005, the Cuban government immediately offered assistance and promised that within 48 hours 1,600 doctors, trained to deal with such catastrophes, would arrive with all the necessary equipment plus 36 tons of medical supplies.
In separate Washington press briefings that year, both the White House and State Department spokesmen downplayed the Cuban offer. According to NBC, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack stated that the "Cuban medical brigade would probably not be needed since there has been a 'robust response from the American medical community.'" Over 1,800 people died during and after Katrina despite this "robust" care.
Granted, this measurement of Cuba's healthcare system is made solely on the number of doctors that this country produces. But, they also maintain quality healthcare facilities and nursing care. Whether these services are offered to Cuban citizens as they are to visitors is nebulous, but you can read more about Cuban healthcare at Wikipedia as a starting point for further research.
Daren Jorgenson, founder and "chief idea officer" of Choice Medical Services, has sent some 200 Canadians and Americans on medical tourism excursions to Cuba for services including drug rehabilitation, hip replacement, eye surgery and breast augmentation. According to a recent press release, Bill Doran, CEO of Choice Medical Services, signed an agreement with Cubanacan Turismo y Salud (Cubanacan Tourism and Health), the island nation’s largest tourism property holding company. Cubanacan oversees more than 25 of Cuba’s finest hotels, luxury resorts, restaurants, and other tourism properties for serving health tourists.
According to the agreement, Choice can offer North Americans patients who are currently faced with extended wait times and exorbitant costs, access to safe effective and affordable healthcare. An uninsured American man from Georgia will be the next patient that Choice will bring to Cuba. Doran says the patient will be going for anorthopedic surgery through Canada.
Jorgenson isn't the only person who plans to capitalize on medical tourism to Cuba. A BBC report shows that Cuba is intent on capitalizing on this industry and will open its doors to future patients from any country. More than 5000 foreign patients traveled to Cuba in 2006 for a wide range of treatments including eye-surgery, neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's' disease, and orthopedics. Most of those patients were from Latin America.
A press release offered by the ASRN (The American Society of Registered Nurses), ranks the U.S. as sixteenth in infant mortality rates with 6.4 infant deaths per 1,000 births. The countries that come in with fewer infant mortalities include: Sweden (2.8); Japan (3.2); Finland (3.5); Norway (3.6); Czech Republic (3.9); France (4.2); Spain (4.3); Denmark (4.5); Austria (4.5); Canada (4.6); Australia (4.6); Portugal (4.9); UK (5.0); New Zealand (5.7); South Korea (6.1); U.S. (6.4).
The U.S. also ranks low in life expectancy at birth for both sexes, coming in 17th and tied with Cyprus. Other countries with higher life expectancies include: Japan (81.4); Switzerland (80.6); Sweden (80.6); Australia (80.6); Canada (80.3); Italy (79.9); France (79.9); Spain (79.8); Norway (79.7); Israel (79.6); Greece (79.4); Austria (79.2); New Zealand (79.0); Germany (79.0); U.K. (78.7); Finland (78.7); Cyprus (78.0); and the U.S. (78.0).
If you read the ASRN press release, you'll learn that the U.S. spends more per patient than any other country ($5,711 per person compared to Norway at the next highest rate of $3,809 per person). This rate of spending indicates mismanagement of funds budgeted for the healthcare system, according to the ASRN. According to the Congressional Budget Office [PDF], the federal government will give the drug and health care industries an estimated $822 billion over the next decade as a result of the 2003 enactment of Medicare Part D (although The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services says people save about $1,200 a year on average by participating in this program). By 2016, health care spending in the United States is projected to reach just over $4.1 trillion [PDF] and comprise 19.6 percent of GDP.
Finally, the U.S. isn't listed in the top thirty countries in the world that have the highest number of physicians per 100,000 people. The country with the most physicians per 100,000 people is Cuba (return to #4). Belgium, Italy, Greece, and even Kazakhstan - among at least twenty-five other countries - come before the U.S. for the highest number of physicians per 100,000 people.
True, Canadians have longer wait times. But, according to BusinessWeek, New Zealanders have the shortest wait times to see a doctor. In a 2005 survey conducted by the Commonwealth Fund of sicker adults in six highly industrialized countries, 81% of patients in New Zealanders receive same or next-day appointments for a nonroutine visit, 71% in Britain, 69% in Germany, 66% in Australia, 47% in the U.S., and 36% in Canada. However, patients in the U.S. had shorter wait times than every country except Germany when it came to getting an appointment with a specialist for nonemergency elective surgery, such as hip replacements, cataract surgery, or knee repair.
The Commonwealth survey found one area in which the U.S. excelled by a wide margin: 51% of U.S. adults surveyed did not visit a doctor, get a needed test, or fill a prescription within the past two years because of cost. No other country came close to that percentage. When 47 million citizens that don't carry health insurance is added to the queues of current patients, will the U.S. wait times increase? We may never know that answer.
Although America leads the world in spending on health care (see #6), it is the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not ensure that all citizens have coverage. Additionally, the disparities in access to care and health outcomes are much greater in the United States than anywhere else from which there are reasonable data. America used to share this distinction with South Africa, but this country now has a public healthcare system (although S.A.'s public healthcare system is somewhat rocky).
According to the Institute of Medicine, 18,000 unnecessary deaths occur each year in the U.S. from lack of health care insurance. That number equals six 9/11's; but, 18,000 is a small portion of the 47 million who remain uninsured. Still, we have to ask why 18,000 people need to die in the first place?
According to a 2005 United Nations human development report [PDF pg. 3], “The uninsured are less likely to have regular outpatient care, so they are more likely to be hospitalized for avoidable health problems. Once in hospital, they receive fewer services and are more likely to die in the hospital than are insured patients. They also receive less preventive care. Over 40% of the uninsured do not have a regular place to go when they are sick and over a third of the uninsured say that they or someone in their family went without needed care, including recommended treatments or prescription drugs in the last year, because of cost."
This UN statement sums up many of the points that this article has already pointed out.
This last fact is a question, as it appears that this film is so controversial that even the national media is caught up in the fiasco. On 30 June, CNN published an article stating that Moore's numbers were accurate, but that he needed "more context." Shortly after, on 8 July, many witnessed Michael Moore's interview on CNN, where he blasted CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta for his lack of support for Sicko's numbers. Shortly after this incident, Moore published a page on his site that refuted Gupta's opinions even further. You can use the links offered on this page as validation for your own research. Most of the links will lead you to the same conclusions that we arrived at in this article.
It would be impossible to add more context to the movie itself, but that's what the Web is all about. You can find Moore's rebuttals and support for his information at both the Sicko site and at MichaelMoore.com.
Although this article cannot cover all the points that Moore covered in his movie, we've tried to cover the most controversial points. All Moore did with this movie was point to the health insurance industry as a thorn in the side of the U.S. healthcare system. Medical tourism, another topic in this film, already claims at least 500,000 known Americans who were treated abroad for medical conditions in 2006. This healthcare alternative, claims AARP (Association for the Advancement of Retired Persons), is the simple answer for many to get needed treatment without devastating their savings.
As for the poor in this country, there is no immediate answer to their health needs. And, that's a fact.
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