On the health thing...

I recently watched Michael Moore's Sicko...
and so I've been thinking a lot about the health care system in the US, and outside of it, about propaganda, and about right and wrong, and about the whole general pool of things related to and about movie making, documentaries, journalism, and mostly though, our health.
I have finally determined that even though I don't always agree with the way that michael moore conducts his business, mainly because I'm not particualrly a fan of Hammurabi and so the eye for an eye system of combating angry white men with an angry white man ont he other side of the fence seems counterproductive (though usually hilarious), and even though I don't think the movie portrays all sides fairly because there are instances when the insurance companies do something good, I refuse to believe that they're the incarnation of greed, nor are the universal health care systems of other countries perfect by any means...
it all comes down to some simple truths, that may be painful, but they're true:

First: The health care system in the US is based on profit, which is, well... lets face it... EXTREMELY STUPID.... the main concern of the agencies in charge of making health care available to everyone should be MAKING HEALTH CARE AVAILABLE... not profit... that is just plain logic.
Secondly: Becuase of this primary focus on profit, many many people get screwed out of needed health care and coverage... health care is already easily available to those who can help pay for it, the whole point of insurance is to make it available to those who can't.. but when health insurance is only available ot the wealthy or the healthy, well... then who the EFF are they covering?
Third: I don't have health insurance in the US... and I never have... and I probably never will.
Why? Because I have dual citizenship with a "third world country" where we are "starving for development" and where I can go and get all the medical attention I need, for very little money, and excellent care. where i can go to docotrs that are primarily concerned with my health and not with the money that they will get out of it. where every time i go to the eye doctor, because its so infrequent, as i have to travel halfway around the world, he give me total care on the house. where when you get sick at home and you call the health services, you have immediate medical house call at any time of day or night.
When I was in college I was mildly ill, very mildly... but the student health services had no idea what was wrong with me and what was causing the mild stomach pain I had...
So the Dean said I had to go to the hospital. I refused adamantly, saying I had no health insurance and would not go. He said the College would cover the costs... my health came first (hint hint ... maybe the attitude health insurance companies should adopt?). So I went, they stuck me with an IV, which to this Day I don't know why... I wasn't in need of nutrition, I was eating fine. They made me wait for a long itme, they left me alone for hours in a bed, they took some blood and left me alone for many more hours (and the problem with universalized health care is the waiting time and the lack of personal attention???)... and then they said there was nothing wrong with me, I should take some aspring, take a nap and I'd feel better... thank you, have a nice day.
then they kicked me out, and I had to drowsily call the college to pick me up... that was no concern of theirs. And I was a paying csutomer... well, my college was.
the bill? Close to $4,000. I took up precious time, space, and resources in teh 10 minutes I was attended to in those 8 hours, and they cost $4,000.....
I didn't pay it, my college did, but still... EFFING RIDICULOUS.
And now, in the Marshall Islands, while I may not be as confident of my medical care here as I owuld be in South America, where there are amazingly qualified, US trained doctors...
Any person in this country can get anything from a checkup to serious surgry for FIVE american dollars, any foreigner can get the same for SEVENTEEN american dollars, and medicine is somewhere between free and affordable. So its pretty damn close to universal health care.
BUT, the most shocking thing about it is that WE'RE paying for it!
Instead of having a system in the US that would benefit everyone by using our tax dollars to create a socialized health care system, we are using our tax dollars to fund the RMI health care system. Not that I think that the money to the RMI should stop (although most times I do since its being radically misused) but the reality is that our tax dollars are paying for other peopels health and letting us die...
and that simply makes no sense.

The reality is simple:
having certain institiutions that are socialized does not totally remove the option of privitized businesses, and it is not the same as totall socialism.
We already have socialised establishements in the US: where we get our books, transportation, mail, and EDUCATION! ar ethey with probelms, of course, will a socialized health care ystem have problems like long waits and other issues? YES!, but will people be left homeless because of medical debt, without treatment, without care, or without required medicines because they are not rich hoity toitys.... no.

Let's face it.
Life is temporary, and I would rahter go out in the end having lived a full healthy life, than swimming in a pool of profit off the lives of other people that is not going to go with me whether its to an afterlife or to nothingness.

I love America.
I think its sad that as long as things continue how they are, when it comes to my health, I will always leave America and get treated like a human being somewhere else.

Come on America, step it up.