So I just watched Sicko, how much is true?

[Barnabas]

How much of the movie is true?

What happens to someone who cant pay? I dont think they are left to die

[Wezil]

We just had a long healthcare discussion here:

http://www.apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?threadid=170331

[Zkribbler]

If they're in a crisis mode, then a hospital must work to stablize them. But if they're not in crisis, then they're left on their own until they do go into a crisis mode.

There are some exceptions:
(1) The poorest of the poor (less that $2,000 net worth) do get care under Medical.
(2) Old folks get care under Medicare.
(#) Veterans get care from the VA

[Barnabas]

Lets imagine I suffer a car accident, an ambulance takes me to a hospital (I am unconscious) , I have some kind of surgery, I wake up 3 days later, in that moment they give me a bill?

[Zkribbler]

No, they ask you if you're insured. If not, then they start investigating if and how you can pay.

I picked up a friend of mine from a hospital. He'd broken his wrist. They gave him a pain killer, put his wrist in a cast, and kicked him out. He had to seek care elsewhere to get the bone set.

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
No, they ask you if you're insured. If not, then they start investigating if and how you can pay.

I picked up a friend of mine from a hospital. He'd broken his wrist. They gave him a pain killer, put his wrist in a cast, and kicked him out. He had to seek care elsewhere to get the bone set.

That's standard. ER docs aren't orthopedists. The way malpractice insurance is a non-orthpedist would have to be an idiot to set a bone. Unless the wrist fracture is open to the skin, badly fragmented, unstabilizable, or neuro-vascular compromised there's really no reason to make setting it an emergency. Odds are your community has an adequate number of orthopedists available, so your friend should be able to see someone within a day or two. By that time the swelling should have subsided a bit making it easier to fit a suitable cast.

[Zkribbler]

Exactly right. And by that time, he was able to finally get through to his insurance carrier, so they paid for it.

BTW: In yesterday L.A. Times, there was a front-page story on L.A. hospital closing down because they can no longer make it financially.

And in today's Long Beach Telegram, there's a front-page story about how a Long Beach hospital is closing down because of its finances.

That's another reason I'm a big supporter of single-payor healthcare. When hospitals, clinics and/or doctors provide services, they should get paid. Under single-payor they would.

[Kidlicious]

Re: So I just watched Sicko, how much is true?

That you are more left wing than me since I haven't seen it yet.

Health care reform isn't that interesting to me for some reason.

[Berzerker]

some of it is probably true, some is definitely phony - like Moore's portrayal of a Cuban "show" hospital as if thats standard for the Cuban population.

[Wezil]

The Canadian hospital scenes were apparently filmed at a hospital where I live.

I haven't seen the movie yet, so I can offer no comparison. I like MM's films but I view them strictly as a piece of propaganda. They're easier to digest that way.

[Zkribbler]

There's virtually no tourism there. Who's the "show" for??

My understanding is that providing medical care is what Cuba does best, and that Cuban medical care is rated near the top of third-world countries in quality. It also excels at auto machanics and cigar manufacturing.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
There's virtually no tourism there. Who's the "show" for??

Complaints have arisen that foreign "health tourists" paying with dollars and senior Communist party officials receive a higher quality of care than Cuban citizens. Former leading Cuban neurosurgeon and dissident Dr Hilda Molina asserts that the central revolutionary objective of free, quality medical care for all has been eroded by Cuba's need for foreign currency. Molina says that following the economic collapse known in Cuba as the Special Period, the Cuban Government established mechanisms designed to turn the medical system into a profit-making enterprise. This creates an enormous disparity in the quality of healthcare services between foreigners and Cubans leading to a form of tourist apartheid. In 1998 she said that foreign patients were routinely inadequately or falsely informed about their medical conditions to increase their medical bills or to hide the fact that Cuba often advertises medical services it is unable to provide.[60] Others makes similar claims, also stating that senior Communist party and military officials can access this higher quality system free of charge.[7][8] In 2005, an account written by Cuban exile and critic of Fidel Castro, Carlos Wotzkow, appeared showing apparent unsanitary and unsafe conditions in the "ClÃnico Quirúrgico" of Havana;the article claims that health care for Cubans occurs in worse conditions in the rest of the country.[61]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_Cuba#Criticisms

[Berzerker]

There's virtually no tourism there. Who's the "show" for??

The ruling elite in Cuba and people like Michael Moore? You dont need tourism to have show hospitals

[SlowwHand]

How many years have I been telling...Che, that Castro has ruined Cuba? Years and years. He should die.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
There's virtually no tourism there.

Really?? The thousands and thousands of Europeans and Canadians that pass through Cuba would tend to disagree