Let’s talk about some of the medical cases Michael Moore describes in this film. At the very beginning, there is one about an American man who loses the ends of two of his fingers in an accident with an electric saw. He did not have insurance. The man must choose between having his middle finger reattached for $60,000, or his ring finger for $12,000. The man chooses his ring finger. How can a man be put into the position of making that choice?

Quelle: Moore’s ‚Sicko‘ Lands Blows on U.S. Health Care

Michael Moores neue Doku muss ich auf jeden Fall ins Kino schauen gehen …

I think there’s an issue of expectations. What do the Cubans expect? What do the French expect? What do the British expect? We expect to be able to get drugs like a recently approved drug for cancer that adds 13 days to life at a cost of $4,000 a month. I don’t think people would expect that in France or Germany or Cuba. Thirteen days of added life with some side effects for $4,000 a month? We want it, and they don’t. When we stop wanting things like that, I think we can move ahead.

Oooh doch, da täuschen sich die amerikanischen Experten aber gewaltig. Ich habe schon desöfteren gehört, dass selbst bei aussichtslosen Fällen Operationen im fünf- oder sechsstelligen Frankenbereich gemacht wurden – und die Patienten trotzdem wenige Wochen später starben. Die Frage ist höchstens, ob unsere Patienten ähnlich wie die Amerikaner diese Erwartungshaltung haben, oder ob es eher die Ärzte und Spitäler sind, die sich über den Willen der Patienten hinwegsetzen …

In this movie, Moore advocates eliminating insurance companies entirely and going to a single-payer, government-funded system. This is not what any of the mainstream candidates this year are talking about.

Diese Frage stellten wir Schweizer uns doch erst gerade vor kurzem … *smile*