Legendary consumer crusader Michael Moore has a new movie, "Sicko.", all about the U.S. health-care and insurance industry.
It profiles a number of Americans with insurance who have been denied needed care by their insurance company, describes how the insurance-based healthcare system is structured to keep it that way, and provides examples of other industrialised nations where insurance companies do not stand in the way of medical care.
Released in the USA, no date has yet been set for the UK premiere. It has already galvanised opinion on the US healthcare system.
Those supporting Moore demanding universal health coverage similar to the NHS, include doctors, nurses and those opposing Moore include national and state government, medical bodies, drug companies, and health insurers.
The tales Moore tells in "Sicko," though, are devastating. They include the woman whose infant daughter died after being denied antibiotics because she wasn't at an "in-network" Kaiser Permanente hospital, or the uninsured man who sliced the tips off two of his fingers with a table saw and was able to afford to have the tip of his ring finger reattached for $12,000 but not another $60,000 for his middle finger.
There are September 11 rescue workers, ill from their efforts at Ground Zero, who were denied adequate care by their respective providers.
Moore took a boatload of rescue workers to get treatment in Cuba.
Because of the travel ban on Cuba, Moore and two very ill 9/11 rescue workers are now being threatened with a prison term of up to ten years and massive fines.
US health care has emerged as a top issue heading into the 2008 presidential election, with each candidate expected to offer a fix for what virtually everyone views as a broken system.
Moore argues that other countries have the solution -- countries ranging from Canada, France and Great Britain to Cuba -- in government-run health care that's free of charge.
Whether for or against Moore, no-one can deny the official Census figures where nearly 47 million Americans are uninsured.
A recent study from the Commonwealth Fund comparing the quality of the U.S. system with five other countries found that despite spending twice as much per capita, the U.S. ranks last or near last on basic performance measures of quality, access, efficiency, equity, and healthy lives.
Moore is a fan of the National Health Service - but admits it has shortcomings.
The country held up as a model example is France. Not only are its 62 million citizens healthier than the U.S. population, but also per capita spending on health care is roughly half as much. France relies on a mixture of public and private funding, as does the U.S. But unlike Americans, every French citizen has access to basic health-care coverage through national insurance funds, to which both employers and employees contribute.
Some 90% of the population also buys supplementary private insurance to provide benefits that aren't covered, and the government picks up the tab for those out of work who cannot gain coverage through a family member.
The cash-strapped NHS places less emphasis than the U.S. or France on preventive care. Annual physicals aren't insured. And screening programs are less generous than in the U.S. So despite the fact that pap smears can help detect cervical cancer, the second leading cause of death for women, they are only offered once every three years, as opposed to the recommended annual test in the U.S.
International health insurance: News update: June 2007
