A single payer medicare system was first introduced in the province of Saskatchewan in 1962. But it took a very gutsy politician…a former Baptist preacher to lead the fight. Just that this former Baptist preacher was not of the “Christian right” variety…he was a preacher who promoted the “social gospel” of helping your fellow human being.

Saskatchewan even endured a province-wide doctor’s strike and every scare tactic you can think of. But the provincial government stood firm and implemented single payer medicare. It was so succesful and so popular that by 1966-67 the programme was implemented nationally across Canada.

“Sicko” looks at healthcare systems in Canada, the UK, France and Cuba. It would probably make the most sense for the U.S. to “copy” the key elements of the Canadian system. Partly because we’re probably culturally/socially closer to the U.S. than say the UK, France and certainly Cuba. It would require the least “radical” change…although…it would be a very radical change for the U.S.

I guess I have a bit of a self-interest in seeing the USA move forward on single payer medical care. Why? Because I’d like to see the Canadian system become more comprehensive along the lines of my other post (above). As long as the USA has “no” system…it puts a bit of a “drag” on moving the Canadian system forward.

Don’t get caught up in silly debates about whether people “like” Micheal Moore or not. Whether you “like” his personality or not is really a diversion from the substantive issues.

The real issue is making sure that all Americans regardless of income receive adequate health coverage…and that isn’t going to happen as long as the insurance companies run the system.

It may be possible that in order to fix your health care problem, you will need more than just institutional change, but you may have to find some way of de-fanging that rabid individualism in US culture that *hates* to see anybody get help from the state, and wants to *force* them away from all support, to sink or swim – as if this kind of abandonment of another human being in some way restores justice to the universe (a justice that was threatened by the evil spectre of mutual aid). This is a charicature, but it is out there, and US politicians can count on stirring it up to protect their corporate buddies while the tradition of mutual aid dies in the US.

It’s not that the US as a whole seems this way from afar, it’s just that it’s hard to understand why the extreme hatred of any kind of socialized plan has such a lock on some minds, and why so many people respect those kinds of rigid punishing ideas – ironically many of those people calling themselves Christians, in the name of someone who symbolized the opposite (in fact, a homeless man who lived on charity).

And yes he takes to task the health insurance industry and big pharma.

As the spouse of a very brittle Type 1 diabetic who is undergoing a major period of hospitalization, I know that any American would be going broke through this kind of experience.

Fortunately, I’m a Canadian and don’t have to worry about this kind of thing.
My spouse’s healthcare needs are dealt with by the system and paid out of tax dollars.

Our system does have its problems, but fundamentally, it looks after everyone regardless of income status.

And most of the problems we have are caused by the ideological cousins of American’s right-wing politicians.

We do have right-wing politicians in Canada, it’s just that it’s political suicide to advocate going back to the bad old days pre-1960′s. Instead, Canada’s right-wing politicians will make cuts around the edges to the system…delist a service here…or privatize a service there.

Then America’s lobbyist-stuffed politicians will point to Canada’s problems and say “see…look at those problems…socialized medicine doesn’t work!” and successfully manage to “scare” the American public. When in fact, the problems we have are mostly caused by their Canadian buddies.

We still don’t have a universal pharmacare system in Canada, although there are controls on pharmaceutical pricing…a reason why many Americans are buying their prescription drugs in Canada.

And our prices would be lower than they currently are had the government of former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney not caved into big pharma and lengthened drug patents back in the 1980′s.

One Canadian political party is talking about pharmacare (we have four major parties in our national parliament)…but it hasn’t yet gained much traction.

At present though provincial governments (our equivalent of state governments in the U.S.) all have a patchwork of prescription drug plans for seniors with coverage varying from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

Dental and optical care also isn’t covered. Although workplace-based private group insurance plans often cover pharmaceuticals, dental and optical care.

So we have much still to do and many battles to be fought in Canada but every day I want to say a big thank you to the late Tommy Douglas…our country’s patron saint of medicare.

Despite what you may have heard about Canadian healthcare, it is not as great as you may think. We have slowly been moving towards a privatized system over the years, with less and less covered by the government.

Yes, we are lucky to have most doctor’s appointments and visits to the emergency room/hospital covered, but we need our own health insurance for prescriptions, etc. And unfortunately, most companies around here offer poor group plans in an attempt to keep their costs low (my plan isn’t the greatest, they only cover 50% of my pump supplies, but I can say that it IS better than most, with no maximums on prescriptions).

I’m hoping this film creates some buzz in Canada too.

No argument from me as to putting the blame on the people in Congress and the executive office for going around in circles by talking, talking, talking and constatly raising money for reelection from special interests. It coincides with my “15 year morass” comment going back to the early 90′s when there was this “great commission” to “fix” health care problems [when they might have still been fixable] that ammounted to mostly bluster and minimal useful action, a problem that has been perpetuated ever since.

As to taking MM with a grain of salt, I do. In each of his movies I find about 10 minutes of LOL hilarity, an hour of material I sadly have to agree with, and a half hour of ambush journalism, cheap-shots, and selective editing that makes me cring. But hey, everyone is entitled to their artistic style and if the public enjoys it and is willing to pay good money to see it that’s their right as well. As for me I’ll wait three years until it hits cable, the buzz has died down, and I can view it more objectively.

I think that you need to take MM’s documentaries with a grain of salt. He does get people talking, though, and that is always a good thing.

Why do those of us who work hard at staying healthy with diabetes have to continually battle with our insurance providers. Especially when we know that some of these things will actually save the companies money in the long run.

I’m just about to start with my friendly insurance company to see whether I can get coverage for the Dexcom. Wish me luck.