Sick Around the World

The economics of healthcare is not at all simple. What you put in is certainly not necessarily indicative of what you get out, as shown by the striking discrepancy between what we pay and what we get out of our healthcare system. This is demonstrated further by comparing our system to those of France and Italy, who come in first and second, respectively, in WHO’s international ranking of healthcare systems (“World Health Organization’s Ranking of the World’s Health Systems”). Counter to what many Americans may believe, a number of European nations do not have completely socialized medicine.

In the contemporary world, America is one of the greatest countries. From the polio vaccine to Coca Cola, United States is mother to many inventions. As Americans, we enjoy higher quality living standards than most other parts of the world. This pleasure-oriented lifestyle makes a lot of other nations envious of us. And with the envy comes antipathy. For the time it has existed, the American healthcare system has been a subject of scrutiny and debate.

This movie went around the world to different countries to show the comparisons and differences in healthcare compared to each other and the U.S. The first country that was visited was the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom spends 8.3% of their GDP on healthcare. The citizens pay nothing for premiums, all of it is paid trough taxation. Some services require co-pay, but all young people and all elderly are exempt from drug co-pays. The United Kingdom calls their healthcare system “socialized medicine”; the government provides for and pays for all healthcare. The taxes that Britons pay gets distributed up to different healthcare providers. Since the United Kingdoms’ system is taxed,

The documentary "Sicko" provides an extensive analysis of the different drawbacks of the American healthcare framework. Michael Moore, the director, is upfront with regards to the dissipation of statistical data and portrayal of real-life stories of the healthcare in other nations is better in comparison to that of the US. It is interesting to see the director careful utilize experiences from the Cuba, France, and the UK. A lot of film critics have issued a lot of reviews regarding the significance of the movie in highlighting the real image of the healthcare framework (Zaccagnini & White, 2015, p.110). For example, the illustration of Cuba's health system seems a bit far-fetched to the critics. All in all, Michael Moore does an adequate job in drawing comparisons from the other significant healthcare plans as a way of depicting the ailing form of America's health system.

Health care has been a debatable topic for many years now. More than half of Americas are without health coverage. On the other side the world places like Germany and Japan required that everyone has insurance. In the videos, Sick Around the World and Sick Around America, Frontline examines the health care system in the United States and parts of the world such as, England, Japan, Germany, Taiwan, and Switzerland, for some responses about health care.

In the video, Sick Around the World, we are able to speculate five different countries and what health care systems they have implemented. Some of these systems are great for their country and some not so much. The first country we visited was Great Britain, which has a government-run national health care system. There are no insurance premiums, no co-pay and doctors are considered to be government employees as well as hospitals are run by the government. Due to the government running Great Britain’s health care system the tax revenue are much higher than that of the U.S., in addition, since the whole country does have this national health care system, the wait time to be seen is much longer of that than the United States.

Having just watched the video FRONTLINE: Sick Around America, it further confirmed what i have known all along about America's failed health system. It's so sad and disappointing to know we live in a country such as United States of America and yet people, are dying off of preventable diseases, due to lack of proper care and not having a good healthcare system in place to care for people like the Murray's family or the likes of Nicki White who has a promising future of becoming a medical doctor and the dream shattered, due to our failed health system. in reality, our healthcare system failed her and she died as a result of that. My opinion on America, as the only developed western country with no good healthcare system in place to cater for

Actual medical care in the United States is better than many other countries, but there are those who think adoption of universal government-controlled healthcare is the way we are headed. In fact, the United States and Mexico are the only countries of the 34 members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that do not have universal health care. (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2013)

According to data presented by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the US health care cost exceeded $ 8,000 per capita, in 2010, comparing to the next most expensive system (Norway) $5,000 per capita (OECD Health Data, 2012). Despite being the most expensive system in the world, US healthcare system has failed in many areas of performance and quality. According to OECD data, US has a much lower life expectancy than other industrialized countries, also the infant mortality rate is higher than those countries. Moreover, the US is the only industrialized country that does not provide its citizens a protection of a universal health care coverage.

The documentary present by PBS “Sick Around the World” gave an insightful look to what other country’s healthcare systems are compared to the US. The film took a closer look at the healthcare systems of Great Britain, Japan, Germany, and Taiwan. Comparing all these country’s healthcare systems, the components in common are that it’s universal, fixed prices for medical treatment, and majority of providers believe that the citizens pay too little for healthcare. The problem with the issues changing the American healthcare system is that the culture of the US is individualistic, meaning we are grown to focus on ourselves, not the others around us. Changing the system, allowing healthcare to be universal is a problem to individuals because

Germany has a market based health system. They have universal health care that covers medical, dental, mental health and even homeopathy. Insurance companies cannot make a profit from insured customers. Therefore, the price for insurance is negotiated between the government and the Insurance provider. Like any other healthcare system there are

The United States is lucky to have thousands of compassionate well-trained physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and other health caregivers who provide up-to-date medical attention to patients seeking their assistance. This is the successful aspect of the healthcare system but that is only a portion of reality. Healthcare in the United States includes an extensive range, spanning from the highest quality and most considerate treatment of those with various illnesses, to the turning away of very ill individuals due to the lack of payment. Access to healthcare is the ability to obtain health services when required. Millions of people in the United States are in a crisis because of the lack of access to healthcare (Bodenheimer & Grumbach, 2009).

Although everything seems to be perfect on the surface, there are always hidden issues and disagreements among the parties involved. For example, the documentary portrays how German doctors held mass protests over the meager payments they get. We also witnessed how the Japanese and Taiwanese systems were also running at a deficit, which most of the time gives government the excuse or justification to charge a higher fee for services or raised taxes. Indeed, even if these Asian countries were to resolve their spending discrepancies instantaneously, their gross domestic product on health care compared to the United States would only be half of money America spends annually on their health care system.

I think Michael Moore’s movie Sicko educates audience on not to take too kindly, not to look too positive on notorious America’s health care system. I think it reveals that America’s health care is market-driven, profit-oriented health insurance and health providers where as in Canada, United Kingdom, Cuba, and France, health care is free. But, I also think that the movie overall looks too much negative aspects of USA health care system and too positive on health care system in other countries, UK, France, Cuba, and Canada. In USA, health care is not basic fundamental right, not social justice. For instance, the film shows audience that a group of September 11 heroes, who are suffering from devastating and debilitating ailments, have been denied medical care or denied treatment by health insurance companies that they require in America. The documentary also reveals the defective, unreliable, cruel America’s health care system that has been so subscribed to and fixated on making huge profits and large sum of money out of the sick and injured patients rather than saving their lives. For example, the movie shows that America insurance process claims not to pay beneficiary’s ailing claims or the medical claims but dismiss them as evidenced by confession of a former employee of an insurance company. This does not only impact uninsured but also insured people who are covered by insurance whether through employer based or self-purchase.

The film Sicko was indeed a very powerful and educational documentary about the United States Health Care System. There were numerous stories that resonated with me, but if I were to just choose one, it would have to be the story about the 9/11 rescuers who couldn’t afford to receive treatment for their illnesses, which were caused by their heroism on 9/11. When I heard this story, it just made me so upset that our healthcare system could not make an exception to treat the many heroes of 9/11. On the contrary, they were treated better and on top of that for free by another country. Every single day we are losing thousand and thousand of our people simply because they do not have the means to pay for their treatments. In fact, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention website states, that there are still over 28 million people in the United States who are uninsured (Cdc.gov, 2017). The American Journal of Public Health published a new study about the number of deaths found annually for those who are uninsured. The study found that nearly 45,000 annual deaths were associated with the lack of health insurance (Cecere, 2009). These numbers are upsurge and something needs to be done to change this.