Sicko--SEE IT!!!! NOW!!!

If you care about your health

Sicko is all it's cracked up to be, an indictment of
the misguided values of American society, where
the dollar is primary, people be damned.
Of course, the negative critiques have started, like
" Moore's 'Sicko' Gives Accused Little Say,"
written for AP by Linda A. Johnson of Trenton, N.J.
First of all, the "accused," i.e. the insurance and
pharmaceutical industries have had ALL the say
for far too long.
This is not a debate!
Johnson challenges Moore's portrayal of the
Canadianand British systems, citing sources that
allege longer wait times for care. Sounds as if
she's not been in a US emergency room lately.

Fortuitously (or not), I had the opportunity
to sample the Canadian system two weeks ago,
when, during a trip to Niagara Falls, I woke up
with a UTI. Went to a walk-in-clinic, paid $75
(flat visit fee),saw a very pleasant doc after 45
minutes waiting amongst a delightful
group of Canadians waiting patiently. Got a
scrip for a ceclor equivalent for a quarter of what
it costs here, and was on my way with the good
wishes of the staff. In January, I had a bit more
serious infection and had to go to an ER here
in NJ. I waited, febrile and in pain, for more than
two hours to get seen. No culture was done.
They started an IV of the antibiotic that
"kills everything," and the bill came to
@ $1500 plus over $100 for a scrip. The only
difference was the IV, which required that I
lie on a bed for an hour or so, that and a tuna
sandwich. Might a less potent and expensive
drug have been used? We'll never know, or
maybe we might if I develop a resistance to it.
I'll settle for the no-frills Canadian plan any day.
Of course, it took over a month to straighten out
the bill from the ER billing service.
That's what we pay for.

Moore is a quintessential populist story teller.

How have we allowed ourselves to be screwed
over by greedy, self-serving fear-mongers for so
long? What's going to make us give up the illusion
that Paris Hilton lives the good life for which we
should strive? What's wrong with
a society that sanctifies the IPhone but
lets people die needlessly?

(and by the way, how did I learn that, but
using Paris and IPhone, I'd get a
better Google ranking?) Sicko indeed.

Injustice Index

Every year the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy pulls together some stats and facts we think represent the real state of the union. We call it the Injustice Index.
You read AlterNet so I'm sure you've read about Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and his $53 million dollar Christmas bonus but that's just one illustration of the state of inequality in America. Here's some more:

DMI's 2006 Injustice Index:
Wages that an average CEO earns before lunchtime: more than a full-time minimum wage worker makes in a year
Ratio of the average U.S. CEO's annual pay to a minimum wage worker's: 821:1

Year when this ratio reached its highest so far: 2006
Total compensation in 2005 of Barry Diller of IAC/Interactive, the highest paid CEO in the US today: $469 million
Additional amount that Mr. Diller received in new stock options "to motivate Mr. Diller for future performance": $7.6 million
Percentage of Americans who feel chronically overworked: 30
Years of unused vacation time that American workers collectively give back to their employers each year: 1.6 million
Percentage of women earning less than $40,000 per year who receive no paid vacation time at all: 37
Payment per episode that Donald Trump receives to host The Apprentice: $3,000,000
Average amount that companies spend to recruit a new CEO from outside the company: $2,000,000
Probability that the newly hired CEO will either quit or be fired within the first eighteen months: 1 in 2
Estimated number of people lined up outside the new M&M store set to open in Times Square responding to ads for "on-the-spot" hiring for 200 jobs, 65 of which were fulltime: between 5,000 and 6,000
Starting salary that drew them there: $10.75 per hour
Fee Paris Hilton is seeking to host a New Year's Eve party in NYC, Miami, or L.A.: $100,000 plus a private jet
Amount that Ms. Hilton is set to inherit from the Hilton Hotel fortune: $350 million
Number of times that Congress has reduced the estate tax since it last raised the federal minimum wage: 9
Longest period in which the federal minimum wage has not been increased: 1997–2006
Number of workers who would directly benefit from an increase in the minimum wage: 5.6 million
Number of very large estates that would directly benefit from a reduction in the estate tax: 8,200
Highest price per custom-fitted, handmade power suit in Armani's new line, which hopes to respond to what ex-Gucci head designer Tom Ford calls "a lot of pent-up demand for true luxury [from men who] are getting rich first, and they want to deck themselves out before they deck out their wives": $20,000
Number of households using credit to cover basic living expenses: 7 in 10
Amount in tax breaks and subsidies that last year's energy bill paid out to the gas and oil industry during a period of record profits and higher prices at the pump: $6 billion
Campaign donations that Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who voted for the energy bill, received from the oil and gas industry: $500,000, making her the top recipient of oil contributions in the 2006 election cycle
Percentage of U.S. workers who are confident they will be able to live comfortably after retirement: 68
Percentage who have saved less than $25,000 toward their retirement: 53
Percent of African-American and Latino families that have zero or negative net worth, respectively: 31 and 38
Date on which USA Today reported that Dr. Anthony Griffin of the Beverly Hills Cosmetic Surgery Institute, who appears on the ABC program Extreme Makeover, predicted that CEOs will lead a surge in male cosmetic surgery because, he says, "for instance,executives on trial for corporatescandals would improve theirchances for acquittal with amakeover just before trial": November 4, 2006
Date on which the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached its all-time high: October 26, 2006
Decrease in percentage of Americans who own stocks from 2004 to 2006, the first such decline on record: 51.9% to 48.6%
Total Wal-Mart received in government subsidies, sometimes called “corporate welfare” by activists, in 2005: $3.75 billion
Percent of the decline in welfare caseloads that is due to TANF programs failing to serve families that are poor enough to qualify, rather than due to a reduction in the number of families poor enough to qualify for aid, in the ten years since "welfare reform": 57
Percentage of the GDP that went to wages and salaries in the first half of 2006: 51.8
Time when the percentage of GDP belonging to wages and salaries was lower than in 2006, out of the 77 previous years for which these data are available: never
Projected total in Christmas bonuses that investment banks in New York City will pay out in 2006: $23.9 billion
Estimated additional amount U.S. workers would receive annually if all employers obeyed workplace laws: $19 billion
Ratio of compensation of CEOs of publicly traded defense companies to privates before September 11th, 2001: 190 to 1
Ratio in 2006: 308 to 1
Percentage increase in out-of-pocket medical expenses for the average American in the past 5 years: 93
Estimated amount the U.S. would save each year on paperwork if it adopted single-payer health care: $161,000,000,000
Date on which incoming Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson announced "Amid this country's strong economic expansion, many Americans simply aren't feeling the benefits. Many aren't seeing significant increases in their take-home pay. Their increases in wages are being eaten up by high energy prices and rising health care costs, among others": August 2, 2006
According to exit polls in the midterm elections, percentage of Americans who think life for the next generation will be about the same or worse respectively: 28, 40
* * *
Want more? For more on the state of the American Dream in 2006 - including a summary of the Best and Worst of public policy this year, a status report on the States, a look at how the think tanks of the conservative Right have been spending their time and money in 2006, and interviews with eight people impacting America through Progressive Public Policy - please check out DMI's Year in Review online.