Having just seen 'Sicko' with my dad, a man who is (unlike me) an expert in the field of health care. Essentially, this is what he told me:
The movie is right to say that other countries with national health insurance do a better job of taking care of their citizens' health. That's the most important thing.
Other countries with 'socialized' or semi-socialized medical systems even manage to spend less money on health care than we do. 16% of US GDP - about two trillion dollars - is spent on health care. Most European countries (and Canada) spend about 6-7% of their GDP on health care. Even socialist Scandanavian countries spend about 9%, and all those systems cover everybody, as opposed to the American system which leaves about a fifth of the population with no insurance at all. Oh, and do you have trouble imagining what two trillion dollars amounts to? Just picture two thousand billion-dollar bills.
So what does all this money buy us? One of my dad's favorite examples is that there are more MRI machines in the greater Washington DC area than in all of Canada. That sounds good for us, but the truth is, we don't have any use for all those freaking MRI machines, and it amounts to a loss for the system. The US medical system puts great value in the newest and flashiest technologies and procedures, many of which are unnecessary.
Plus, more than a fifth of the money goes to administrative costs - the inevitable result of having a myriad of companies providing care. About 20% of Kaiser's budget goes to administration. By comparison, Medicare spends 2% of its budget on the same thing.
What the movie doesn't really talk about is the differences in the health care systems. Basically, he presents Britain, Canada, France etc. as being identical to the US, just with higher taxes in lieu of health insurance costs. Actually, what many of those universal systems have is an emphasis on primary care, and thus less of an emphasis on specialists. So, those famous waiting lists have people on them for exotic or non-urgent procedures.
By far my favorite part of the movie is his interview with former Labour MP Tony Benn. It sums up in clear and unpretentious language, I think, the philosophy not just of universal health care but the whole idea of social democracy.
