How Much is Mum Worth, Anyway?
From: Gary
Date: Saturday, July 14, 2007 12:33 PM
To: mmflint@aol.com
Subject: A Canadian View of US Health Care
Dear Mr. Moore,
I received your email this morning regarding the CNN piece on your movie and started to research the story in general. Let me just say from the couple hours I've just spent, I find it terrifying what US citizens have to go through. From a Canadian point of view (actually I'm from England originally but let's not split hairs), it boggles the mind. In Canada when you are sick or injured, you don't have to stop and think "can I afford to get better?" Isn't that the way it should be? I can't imagine having to make a monitory decisions when I have a health crisis. We feel that there is enough stress during a health issue without having to speak to a banker and getting a second mortgage as well. Call us all crazy Canucks but that's the way we think.
In watching the CNN and Larry King interviews from last week, I was confused at the motivation that Dr. Gupta and CNN had in attacking your movie (sorry I haven't seen it yet but I promise I will). I found it odd that they would pick up on some facts that can be interpreted based on the source but in the long run still told the story. Health care in the US is severely broken and there isn't anything being done about it. Isn't that the real story here? You brought it up several times when asking Wolf and Dr. Gupta the simple question. Why is the media not asking the right questions?
One of the points that kept coming up in comparison with Canada was the long wait times. As we wait we don't think about bankrupting ourselves and our families. My mum was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia 8 years ago. As I'm sure you are aware the drug costs of this disease are extremely high (80k a year X 8 years 640k). When she was first diagnosed, we didn't have to worry about how we were going to pay for this. We actually got to focus on the illness and what could be done to treat it. It was enough to think about at the time, I'm sure you will agree. I can't imagine having to have a family meeting with my two brothers regarding money. What would we talk about? Do we mortgage our houses or say bye to mum now? How much is mum worth anyway? We get the bills for her drugs with a nice fat 0 at the bottom under Amount Due. To tell the whole truth, she does have to pay a $2 dispensing fee. Boy is that a nice feeling. Since that time I've been reviewing the US health care in comparison to ours because of her illness. There were many cases of people in the US with the same form of Leukemia that had to make that very decision. How can that be in the self professed greatest country in the world?
I find myself now wondering what the US thinks of us. Yes I know that most of the US doesn't really think about Canada. Maybe they will start to a little more now. I'd be running for the boarder if I was a sick US citizen. Sure the taxes are a little higher and yes the winters a little colder but at least we get to live them knowing that if/when we need health care that it's there and it's free.
Thank you,
Gary
P.S. I hope your movie and the ripple it has obviously caused will make a difference. My only fear is there is just too much money to be made on sick people. It's a recession free industry. Sad, but true.
