Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Sicko


We finally saw Sicko last night. It's been at the top of my netflix queue since it came out with "Long Wait" next to it. A coworker came by one day and said "You have to see Sicko!" I said "I'm trying!" So finally they sent it to me. That is a scary movie.

I don't know how I feel about universal health care. We have a British friend and some British family who say things aren't as rosy in England as they are portrayed. Like you have to wait months to see a doctor. And we all know the British have bad teeth! But we've got to have something better than what we have in America.

My parents are small business owners and growing up we had the worst insurance ever. We never went to the doctor unless it was absolutely necessary. I remember in middle school having a temperature of 104 and not going to the doctor because my mom wanted to see if it would go down. And our regular doctor was just the local walk-in clinic. I also remember my cousin breaking her arm and going to the hospital and only paying $25 to fix it because her dad worked for the county and had good health insurance. These things made an impact on me and I would always tell people that when I grew up, I wanted a job with benefits. It's a strange thing for a kid to say, but the insurance thing made an impact on me early in my life.

But after watching Sicko, it's like maybe just having insurance isn't enough if they can deny your claims. Watching it made me thankful that I changed insurance. Kaiser, my old insurance, invented HMOs, and are very good at denying coverage and keeping their money. I've heard this before and it's why I switched insurance before I even starting trying to get pregnant. And I switched to a POS, which just has to be better than an HMO, but they are still in it for the money, so I'm sure you can still get fucked.

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