Sicko Essay

I have just come back from watching the new Michael Moore film "Sicko"

This is a film that affirmed much of what I know and feel about our flawed not only health care, but insurance system in general.
Insurance is a big subject in the United States. My own experiences are very good only because I happen to be the son of a parent who works for the government, but only recently has a decent dental plan been issued to my insurance, before there was none. I know of many friends of mine through various sports I have played who are at very high risk when they become injured and cannot get treatment due to the high expense. Privatized insurance is a flawed, greedy and immoral system. My grandmother took a claim on her home five years ago for a plumbing problem. She has owned her home for forty four years, and never, not once, took a claim and her insurance was dropped. My sister damaged the fender of my mother's car six years ago from driving the car into a light post in a parking lot. Very low damage, but my mother made a claim for the first time in 25 years and her rates were doubled.

This is wrong. We have to look at the definition of insurance.

in·sur·ance  (n-shrns)
n.
1.
a. The act, business, or system of insuring.
b. The state of being insured.
c. A means of being insured.
2.
a. Coverage by a contract binding a party to indemnify another against specified loss in return for premiums paid.
b. The sum or rate for which such a contract insures something.
c. The periodic premium paid for this coverage.

As a country having insurance privatized is wrong. As a business of any kind your objective is to make more money than you spend. Insurance is no different. When you're fellow man is in need what is more important: A human life or more money going into a business owners pocket?

The fact that companies do try to find ways to drop you, or will not pay for medical treatments due to it being considered "experimental" is not only wrong, but immoral. I have to deal with this as a massage therapist. I do not deal with insurance. Not because I don;t want to help people, but because insurance companies try to screw me out of my earnings. My medical practice is not considered "Proper" medicine and for that I am shunned. Any help to help another person in pain is help, and the fact that companies are more interested in how they did this quarter than saving a dying man is inexcusable.

Change has to be made, and now.

I call upon everyone to say NO to insurance companies. Tell them what you want and that you will not accept anything less. A human life is worth more than any amount of money in the world.

Take a stand against this and make this the start for government insurance for EVERYONE. Regardless of class, race, income, condition, anything. Anyone and everyone deserves to be treated equal. That is what this country was founded upon and that needs to be reminded.

Let's take a stand today


-Patrick