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Home > Moves, movies, movies--and Single Payer healthcare

Moves, movies, movies--and Single Payer healthcare

February 28th, 2018 at 09:26 pm

I've spent the past three evenings at the movies. On Sunday, I saw "I, Tonya." On Monday, I saw "Citizen Jane," about Jane Jacobs and her activism with housing projects. That one was followed by a panel with a couple of local college professors and the head of the local council on economic development.

Then last night, I saw another documentary: Fix It: Healthcare at the Tipping Point. It provides an argument for "Medicare for All." You can actually watch this one online (https://fixithealthcare.com/). But what was extra special was that the producer and director of the film were both there and spoke after. It was also kind of neat that, even though the film speaks to national and international issues, it was made locally and you can see some nice footage of our city, the downtown (where I work), and the former mayor, who is interviewed and who works in the building next door and is still quite active locally.

The big roadblock to single payer isn't so much it being a conservative vs liberal ideological issue, but the lobbying money that the insurance industry and big pharma throw at the issue.

The producer and director also made two other films, one on Big Pharma, which they'll be showing locally next month (and which you can see online at https://fixithealthcare.com/big-pharma-movie/) and a third documentary, which they'll be releasing in about a month--no local screening or online access yet, but I expect there to be.

I feel so fortunate to currently have employer insurance, but I paid my own, first under COBRA and then outright (individually and then on healthcare.gov) from 2009 thru 2014. I don't really look forward to getting older but I can see the benefit of getting to Medicare age with my friends and clients.

5 Responses to “Moves, movies, movies--and Single Payer healthcare”

  1. creditcardfree Says:
    1519860776

    I haven't watched either of those documentaries...but I do agree with you that the power the Pharma and Insurance industries play in our health care are huge and not all if it is good. There is so much fraud in Big Pharma. But I know for sure I don't want the government deciding which procedures I can and can't have. They already don't allow certain procedures that have cured some types cancer in other countries. I'm sure Big Pharma is threatened by the thought of losing patients and dollars if we actually cure something. It's not up to the government or any other entity to decide what I put into by body or how I choose to be treated.

  2. Dido Says:
    1519866021

    CCF, the government wouldn't decide what procedures you could or could not have--what they would decide is what they would reimburse the provider for. Under our current system, that is what private insurance does. When a procedure is reimbursed under Medicare, costs are standardized. When private insurers decide and hospitals and doctors set their own costs, a procedure that one person pays $10,000 for, another person might pay $40,000 for.

    There's already somebody telling you what you can get reimbursed for (and not what you can have done--you just pay out of pocket for unteimbursed expenses). How do you think it would be different if it was the government deciding on the reimbursements rather than a private insurer? There's always someone who can do "no, we won't pay for that." How do you think it would be different if it was a government institution rather than a myriad of private insurers?

  3. Amber Says:
    1519907941

    Healthcare is a touchy topic. Now that the individual mandate is gone, I'm curious to see how this will impact ACA

  4. rob62521 Says:
    1519937716

    I haven't seen these movies, but I agree, the pharmaceutical companies have way too much power. It is scary how much medicines are, even some older ones. Last night there was a local story about a nearby city giving clean needles and alcohol wipes and those who do heroin as well as the drug that should save someone if they overdosed. All free. Then I think of those folks who have diabetes and they get nothing free and they didn't do anything to themselves like take an illegal drug.

  5. Jenn Says:
    1519953746

    As long as we equate "healthcare" with medical services, we will struggle as a country with costs.

    It's lucrative for the pharma companies, medical professionals, government, and processed 'food' companies to help one another feed the epidemic. The more I learn, the more disgusted I get. To CCF's point, a doctor cannot treat a cancer patient with nutritional remedies without risk of losing his license. If you want to use the Gersen therapy approach, it not only isn't covered by insurance - you must leave the country to save your life.

    Hopefully the repeal of the individual mandate will remain so that healthy people who use preventive approaches to healthcare - not covered by insurance of course - can pay for them along with small premiums for a catastrophic policy. But unfortunately, that won't help the growing number of chronically ill. For that, our culture would need to change to embrace health over profits.

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