Michael Moore overlooked this in Sicko
I'm sure you have read about the high school student who died as the result of a treatment-resistant staph infection which prompted Virginia officials to quickly shut down 21 schools to keep the illness from spreading (1).
However in Britain, where everyone can rely on the great National Health System touted as superior to ours, more than a thousand patients at just three hospitals were infected with the Clostridium difficile bacterium between 2004 and 2006:
Sweetness and Light,
11 Oct 2007,
345 Die In UK Hospitals - From Poor SanitationThree hospitals in Kent were so decrepit, overcrowded, understaffed and badly managed that when a lethal bacterial infection took hold it spread unchecked, causing death and disease on an unprecedented scale.
...
An investigation by the Healthcare Commission, published in June 2006, blamed "serious failings” by senior managers who gave priority to government targets and control of their finances and ignored warnings from infection control specialists…
But this is something that a good documentarian should have included in his film SICKO, no? At least to have the appearance of fair and balanced. But I suppose being fair and balanced would have felt to Moore as if he were too much like FOX News, eh?
Michael Moron also missed the demonstration by nearly naked nurses complaining about the National Health Services; how did that happen?
Socialized Medicine has only one Pro: everyone suffers, not just the poor. And to a left-winger that is very satisfying. It is impossible to describe to a normal person what a Liberal feels when he sees rich people in pain. Because it is rationed, the rich as well as the poor get cut off from medical services when the state has reached its financial quota for operations and medicine. And that is the real reason Liberals love the medical system in Canada: if there are no more hip replacements left for the year you are forbidden by law to pay for them in the US or anywhere else. The rich as well as the poor suffer equally.
Yes, yes, I am aware that Canadian mothers have to come to the United States for neonatal intensive care because in the whole of Canada they do not have this service. But if the Health Service in Canada ran out of money then even that option would end. As it is, about one out of every seven Canadian physicians sends someone to the United States every year for treatment. If it were not for the American Health Care System, Canada's would implode (2). Something that Michael Moore forgot to mention.
The truth is that Socialized medicine is a horror. People who suffer under it do so as abused wives who deny they are abused.
Gates of vienna,
National Health or Individual Well-Being?People with toothache are resorting to pulling their own teeth because they cannot find a NHS dentist, a study out today says.
Almost a fifth of those questioned in the biggest patient survey of its kind said that they had missed out on dental work because of the cost.
The research, involving more than 5,000 patients in England, also found that as many as six per cent had treated themselves because they could not find a dentist.
Some said they took out their own teeth or fixed broken crowns with glue. One person in Lancashire had carried out 14 separate extractions with pliers.
How did Michael Moore, that great maker of documentaries, miss that?
But, hey, I say let's give Hillary's Universal Health Coverage a try. After all, Mexico is not that far away if we need to get alternate health services when ours crashes and burns.
Disclaimer: The nearly naked lady is actually protesting in the Anti-Trident March in London on 24 Feb 2007 and is merely holding a poster that equates the money spent on Trident Missiles would pay for 120,000 nurses. I figured since Michael Moore can lie and fabricate facts in his documentaries, I can take a few liberties myself. In fact, I wouldn't mind taking a few liberties with some British Nurses myself.
Notes
(1):
Foxnews, 16 Oct 2007, Staph Infection Kills Virginia Student, Prompts Closing of 21 Schools
A high school student has died as the result of a treatment-resistant staph infection, prompting Virginia officials to shut down 21 schools to keep the illness from spreading.
Ashton Bonds, 17, a senior at Staunton River High School in Bedford, Va., died Monday after being hospitalized for a week with Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, his mother said.
"I want people to know how sick it made my son," Veronica Bonds said.
Bedford Superintendent James Blevins said at a news conference Tuesday that the schools will be closed for cleaning Wednesday.
Staph infections, including the serious MRSA strain, have spread through schools nationwide in recent weeks, according to health and education officials.
MRSA is a strain of staph bacteria that does not respond to penicillin and related antibiotics but can be treated with other drugs. The infection can be spread by skin-to-skin contact or sharing an item used by an infected person, particularly one with an open wound.
Many of the infections are being spread in gyms and locker rooms, where athletes — perhaps suffering from cuts or abrasions — share sports equipment. Ashton Bonds played football last year but was not playing this season.
(2):
American Thinker, 11 Oct 2007, Let's hope Rudy has the last laugh on Hillary Care
"If we do Hillary care or socialized medicine, Canadians will have no place to go to get their health care."
That line from former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani drew plenty of laughs at Tuesday's Republican debate.
Sure, Michael Moore's absurd fantasy that our northern neighbor's rationed government-run health care system is one to be coveted rings pretty funny. But the underlying realities are fatally serious.
We know that outlandishly long and sometimes life-threatening waiting lists have forced Canada to use American hospitals as a convenient safety-valve to relieve the pressure when public outcry bloats. In fact, according to Michael Turner of the Cato Institute, "about one out of every seven Canadian physicians sends someone to the United States every year for treatment."
Additionally, wealthy Canadian cardiac patients often avoid the dreadful wait by having their surgery performed here in the states on their own dime. That's why it came as little surprise when a 2006 report by the Fraser Institute found that a California heart-surgery center has actually been advertising its services in a Vancouver newspaper (3).
(3):
Fraser Institute, WAITING YOUR TURN 16th EDITION -Hospital Waiting Lists In Canada PDF
[Page 25] Across Canada, many governments have had to provide additional funding for heart surgery in their provinces. In the past, American hospitals have also provided a convenient short-term safety valve for burgeoning waiting lists for cardiac operations. The government of British Columbia contracted Washington State hospitals to perform some 200 operations in 1989 following public dismay over the 6-month waiting list for cardiac bypass surgery in the province.
Wealthy individuals, furthermore, may avoid waiting by having heart surgery performed in the United States. A California heart-surgery centre has even advertised its services in a Vancouver newspaper.
