[hutchibk]

I do not plan to see it as I will not give Michael Moore a cent of my money. He is not a thinker or a solver. He is merely a malcontented contrarian... an opportunistic whiner and complainer who has found a successful formula to make money off of manipulating people's emotions. He is a well documented fabricator.

A close friend lives in the UK and is on the national health system. His father needed a heart operation in February last year. The doctor told him he could possibly schedule it for late July. The friend asked how soon it could be done if his father had private insurance or were to pay for it, and the doctor's answer was that that was a different story and it would cost $10,000 and that he could fit him in on Thursday. From what I understand, much of it depends on the individual doctor and how the NHS pays them. The NHS doesn't pay for all procedures, so not all on NHS have access to the same care as those who have chosen to buy supplemental insurance. And on the flip side, the insurance does not always cover all scans that they need, etc... (sound familiar?) My friend and his sister promptly decided that they needed to apply for private health insurance for when they might need it, so as not to be in the same predicament as his father. As well, I have read that the Irish are currently up in arms over their poor medical health and hospitals. If my friend in England wants access to timely appointments (within weeks as opposed to months), access to the best hospitals and the best care, then he has to purchase private supplemental insurance. At a cost not much different than my primary insurance costs me. But to have their 'national health care', they have to pay much, much higher income taxes per year (apx 45 %) and sales taxes (apx %20). Yet that 'national public health care' doesn't get them what they need when they need it. Michael Moore doesn't tell you that in his movie, does he? I agree that our health insurance system is bloated, overwhelming, imperfect and outrageously expensive. It is a tremendously ineffecient in many ways and an increasingly difficult system. But for someone in my shoes, I would rather be here in our current health system than anywhere else in the world. National/Socialistic health system models that are found in other countries are not the only answer to our woes. Just because ours is expensive doesn't mean that other countries systems are better just because they are perceived as 'free for all'... They are typically 2 tiered systems, and they are hardly free. They are very broken models as well.

You are appalled by how much control the Govt has over our health... imagine how much worse it would be if they had all of the control over our health! From what I understand, in England, they have a postal code lottery system when it comes to access to drugs.. the NHS leaves decisions about paying for drugs to each area's primary care trust and some unfortunately will not pay for some drugs, due to cost and how much debt each trust is in. They also have to wait for NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence) approval on drugs before the NHS makes them available. As it stands currently, Tykerb isn't licenced, so it must be accessed through a clinical trial. When Herceptin needed to be licenced for early breast cancer, the NHS would not fund it and people who desperately needed it could not get it. It will probably be a very similar situation when Tykerb comes up for license in the UK.

I suggest researching the real solvers - the brilliant minds in our country who are looking to create a model that will work fairly and efficiently. Look up the name Regina Herzlinger.