Sicko Health Care

It's been interesting to read comments about the 'Sicko' movie. Some people are shocked to find that their insurance won't always cover them. Others want our government to fix it all and be their new safety net. Others have avoided insurance as well as doctors by being careful in their food and lifestyle choices and vow to steer clear of someone dictating to them about their own bodies.

There certainly seem to be two camps: one that wants someone to care for them, and the other that feel responsible for themselves. I'm of the latter group as I know I won't cheat myself, overcharge myself, or refuse to approve of my own treatment. I may misdiagnose myself, but I won't overmedicate myself. I also won't recommend extensive and expensive testing to prove all the things that are not wrong with me so I won't sue myself for negligence.

Think of all the time that I won't sit in waiting rooms. Think of all the diseases that I won't catch from germ ridden hospitals. Imagine all the old magazines that I won't have to read and all the money that I won't pay to specialists, insurance companies, HMO's, labs, technicians, hospitals and nursing facilities.

Socialized medicine? I lived in a country that had it. The doctors got very good at doing extensive procedures that would pay them the most, whether you needed it or not. Cheap? Taxes were high to pay for it all. Nothing is free....except freedom to choose to not let someone else be in charge of how you feel, and what is done to you.

I mean, being sick is bad enough, without someone charging you for it too!