The U.S. and, ha ha, Health Care

We watched "Sicko" last night, Michael Moore's documentary on the U.S.' corrupt and inadequate health care system. I feel very sorry for people watching this movie in the U.S because the film will make them sick (and disgusted)and drive them to the same health care system the movie is denigrating. There, if all goes as normal, those with insurance will be rejected and those without will either pay through the nose or be escorted from the premises as unwell as they arrived. The system is based on "less care means more profit." My feeling is that a country that doesn't look after the health of its own people is itself a sick country. Hmmmm, where I wonder, do you send a country to get treatment? The only place I can think of is the voting booth.

Fortunately for me I was in Panama when I was afflicted with my gallbladder's desire for an out of body experience. Although the six day hospital stay has left me in debt, I am not dead and I'm not bankrupt, one or the other of which I would have been in the States, because I was caught with no insurance. (Oddly, the U.S. will not pay Medicare for its citizens in Panama. I say oddly because people here go back to the U.S. for treatments that cost the Medicare system far more, many times more, than if it had paid for the same procedures here in Panama.)(The founding fathers were bright guys, but they didn't make logic a prerequisite of government.)

I must admit, while watching the movie, to feeling a little envious of the people in Canada, France and Great Britain who have paid zippo, nada, nothing for their health care throughout their lives. I would have had thousands more dollars to diddle with if that had been the case in the U.S. during my lifetime. Sure the people in those countries pay high taxes, but then... SO DO WE! For their tax dollars they get to live longer and healthier, but c'mon, we have better Hummers and Bradley Fighting Vehicles. And also our politicians are richer.

Nevertheless, as Americans, we must remain proud. Although, when it comes to health care we can't run through the crowd holding up a finger and shouting "We're number one, we're number one!", we can still puff out our chests and proclaim, "We're number 37, we're number 37. At least it's not last.