No Academy Award for American Healthcare.

Well, the Oscars came and went last evening and Michael Moore’s documentary on the American healthcare system failed to win an Oscar.  The documentary, “Sicko”, takes a look at American health care and explores the reasons behind the adoption of a for-profit system by profiling individuals whose lack of proper care and battles with insurance companies have drastically affected their lives.  The very issues outlined in this film are what the democratic leadership hopefuls are driving home each day as they try to win votes to pick a leader and presidential candidate.

If you have not seen “Sicko”, I strongly urge you to do so.  While many say that the film is biased (Its Michael Moore people, get used to it), it does provide an excellent overview of the American system in comparison to universal systems in Canada, the UK, France, and Cuba.  As a Canadian, one of the first things you will notice about the film is how basic our universal care is next to other countries.  If you want to be surprised when you watch the film, don’t read any further… 

England’s National Health Services or NHS, as an example, has an innovative flat-fee for drugs.  As of April 2007 the prescription charge for medicines in England became a flat fee of £6.85, roughly $13.45 CDN.  People over sixty, children under sixteen (or under nineteen if in full time education), patients with certain medical conditions, and those with low incomes, are exempt from paying.  The charge is the same regardless of the actual cost of the medicine but higher charges apply to medical appliances.  In France, the system pays for and manages in-home doctor visits, hospital care, prescription drugs, salary continuance for parents and recovering patients, as well as in-home domestic support services to ease the burden of families who have had a recently born child.  That’s right, they send you a government issued nanny and pay for it!

While I would be opposed to some of the perks in the French system (we pay enough in taxes already), I must say that the UK’s NHS solution does have some perks, particularly the fixed drug costs.  Gossip in Ottawa is leading many to believe that a national pharmacare system is inevitable.  Until then, we are still miles ahead of the US system.  According to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the United States is the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not provide universal health care.  Apparently not an issue as the Oscar went to “Taxi to the Dark Side”, a film about an Afghan taxi driver beaten to death in 2002 while in U.S. military custody and the abuses committed during the detainment and interrogation of political prisoners.  An important issue as well, and I will probably watch this on the weekend.  But still, I still think “Sicko” could have done more for America.