"Sicko"

I recently watched Michael Moore’s Sicko and was blown away by what was documented.

The documentary centres on the U.S. health care system in comparison with non-profit universal health care systems of Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Cuba.

Did you know that in 2007 the U.S. ranked #37 as a health system by the World Health Organization? Or the fact that Canadians, the English and the French live longer than an average American or that insurance companies are evil?

It’s heartbreaking to know that thousands of Americans die every year simply because they're uninsured.

In fact, those who thought they were adequately insured were denied care.

Interviews of former employees of insurance companies shared cost-cutting initiatives that give bonuses to insurance company physicians and others to find reasons to deny medical costs of necessary treatments for policy holders which in turn increases their company profitability.

Imagine being denied treatment for a surgery that could potentially save your life because your insurance company wants to make a profit out of you. A woman needed life-saving surgery and was grateful when she received a check. However after her surgery, she was made to pay it all back because they found out that in the past, she had a yeast infection and failed to inform the company.

Another heartbreaking story was of a man who accidently chopped two of his fingers off while working and needed surgery to reattach his fingers. His insurance company gave him a quote of how much he would have to pay for his surgery. His middle finger cost $24,000+, while his ring finger cost $16,000+. The poor man had to chose between his two fingers and he chose his ring finger, as he could not afford to reattach both fingers.

In the U.K., their National Health Service is a publicly funded health care system and there are no out-of-pocket payments.

Moore visits a U.K. pharmacy and finds out that pharmaceuticals are free of charge for persons under 16 or over 60, and subsidized in most cases for everyone else; only a fixed amount of £6.65 (about $10) per item on a prescription was charged, irrespective of cost to the NHS.

What’s more amazing is that NHS hospitals employ a cashier, who reimburses low-income patients for their out-of-pocket travel costs to the hospital. Now imagine being paid for being sick? Amazing isn’t it?

In France it’s even better. The French has a 24-hour medical service that provides house calls by physicians so you don’t have to travel when you’re ill.

The French government also provides many other social services apart from health care, such as public education, vacations and day care for $1 an hour. They even provide cooking, cleaning and laundry services for new mothers.

In Canada, an amazing man, Tommy Douglas, was voted the greatest Canadian in 2004 for his contributions to the Canadian health system, by introducing the concept of universal and free health care for its citizens.

In Cuba, access to health care is universal and is one of the most generous countries in providing doctors to third world countries. Health care cost for a Cuban is $251 per person while in the U.S. its nearly $7,000 per person!

The U.S. government appropriated $50 million for the care of 9/11 rescue workers who volunteered after the September 11, 2001 disaster.

Unfortunately they were denied the funds to care for physical and psychological problems they subsequently developed.

Moore took some of these volunteers to U.S. Guantanamo Bay detainment camp to obtain free medical care that is apparently provided for the prisoners. When their attempt failed, the group moved on to Havana, where they managed to purchase inexpensive medicine and receive free medical treatment. They were only asked for their names and birth dates to get hospitalized and receive treatment.

Now I’m sure you’re wondering who is responsible for America’s modern HMO-based health care system. Well if you guess Nixon, then your guess is absolutely correct. Richard Nixon and John Ehrlichman (Counsel and Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs) were responsible for the Health Maintenance Organization act of 1973.  The plan was to give less care and make more money, which Nixon seemed impressed by.

How about that!

Why can’t Americans care for each other? Why are they so blind to see how the disruptive and murderous system is corrupting and killing so many innocent people?

The American government is only interested in profit making without any regard for its nation’s welfare.

Americans should really take a stand and fight for their human rights to receive medical care and live!

A government should be afraid of its people as only they shape their government. Don’t be afraid of your government. The power is in your hands and in your voice.

Words

"Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me." That’s not entirely true is it?

If words could kill, I’d have killed many people! Or would have probably been killed myself!

Good news is they’re still alive and well. Although, those words said would have stung like a bee.

Sometimes I feel, we forget about the importance of words. How words we utter can affects us all either negatively or positively.

I’ve had numerous arguments and won, but not without hurting anyone’s feelings in the process.

Most times when we find ourselves saying things we do not want to but we do it anyway. It happens to all of us. Its not something all of us are good at controlling.

The thing that gets to me is how we are so quick to say that we’re sorry and didn’t mean the things that were said.  How can that be? In most arguments, when two people are frustrated and possibly angry at each other, you can’t help but react naturally. If horrible things were uttered, it was probably true. The only problem was you used mean, cruel or even derogatory words in that moment, instead of using kind and positive words.

All I’m saying is that we can all be honest individuals, just as long as we stop to think before saying anything that we might later regret.

Words are powerful and everyone should practice using words wisely instead of just vomiting them out without regard for anyone’s feelings.

To illustrate my point, I’d like to share one of my experiences.

When I was a teenager, I was a rebellious one. I never took heed to what I was told to do and only enjoyed doing things I was forbidden to. So you can imagine the difficult times my mother would have faced because of me.

One day, my mother and I got into an argument that resulted in both of us saying horribly mean things to each other.

In her anger my mother said that she wished she had aborted me when she had the chance to.

Imagine the horror I experienced. It felt like she took a sword and stabbed me directly in the heart. I was not only shocked, but terribly hurt as well.

You’d think I would have gotten over the incident knowing that my mother only uttered those words because she was disappointed and mad at me for the way I was behaving at that moment and the words just slipped out.

However, the truth is I have never been able to forget those words. Especially when it comes from your mother. I have never been able to get over it. In fact I think about it every time my mother and I have arguments.

When you use words as a weapon it can border to verbal abuse or verbal violence. Let’s try not to allow ourselves to be the aggressor or the victim.

I don’t think I have to tell you how difficult it can get when the ones you love say the most hurtful things to you in anger. But I guess that’s what makes us human. We all make mistakes and we should make it a point to learn from them. We should strive to be and do better.

We should all practice being generous with our words. Use kind words; always try to be empathetic, and respectful. Even in impossible situations. It won’t be easy. Trust me. But practice makes perfect! And people will love you more for it.

Therefore, THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK!