GOD BLESS AMERICA
The United States of America. A country that has to deal with a lot of stereotypes, especially when it comes to obesity and the bad health care system. But is it really true that all Americans are fat and that no one can afford a health insurance?
Well, first of all, obesity is a growing trend in the USA, compared to the 13% in 1962, in 2010 35.7 % of the Americans were suffering form obsity. Obesity costs the US 6%-12% of health care expenditures and is for sure nothing to be laughed about. While extreme obestiy increased by a factor of five, severe obesity increased from one in 200 to one in fifty (!!!). What is sad is that in particular the number of kids and teens being too fat (sorry for this word) is increasing, which means that nearly one fifth of the young people in the US suffers form obesity. You can search for many reasons why the number is increasing but acutally there are only two main reasons: too much fast food and not enough exercise. Typical American food is rich in carbonhydrates anyway, but in addition to this more and more Americans also tend to eat processed and deep fried food, as it easy to cook, but it also includes tons of sugar and fat. Modern technology such as television and computer games have also reduced the motivation to exercises since you do not have to go out to have fun.
Obesity does not only mean "being too fat to be become a model", the problem is that this trend leads to other illness such as diabetes, heart diseases, high blood pressure, heart attacks, etc. People in Austria would go to a doctor, but where should Americans go when not having a health insurance?
In order to inform myslef about the health care system in the USA I`ve watched Sicko from Michael Moore and I am deadly shocked by this system.
Millions of Americans have no health insurance, so when they get hurt their first thought is- " Can I afford this?". In his movie Moore tells us the story of Rick, a guy who has lost two fingers working with a machine, so going to the hospital the doctor told him that his middle finger would cost 60000 dollars, but his ring finger would just cost 12000 dollars. Today Rick is a happy man, without a middle finger and this just because he was not insured. Even those lucky 250 million Americans who have a health insurance still cannot afford medication, as it is extremly expensive. The biggest problem is that most heatlh insurance companies are not willing to pay for certain diseases such as diabetes, heart diseases and certain types of cancer, so no matter what you try they will not provide you a health insurance. People who work for a health care insurance have to have a certain number of cases they deny. In other words: Not providing a health insurance to a certain amout of people means extra money for employees. Health insurance companies even employ people whose job it is to search for reasons why they won`t give you a health insurance and even if you get one they will find a reasons why you have to pay the money back, and we do not talk about 100 dollars, we talk about thousands and thousands of dollars. The health care system does not want you to be healthy, but your money.
But there was one woman raising her voice against it- Doctor Linda Peeno. She used to work as a medical reviewer for the health care company Humana and was brave enough to tell the whole world that denying a case pushed her career and saved a lot of money for the company, also telling others that she had to use her medical knowledge only to deny cases.
This terrible health care system goes back to 1977 when Richard Nixon introduced his "New Health Care System" that should provide health care for each American, and kills 18000 persons a year because they just cannot afford it. A lot of Americans that suffer form certain diseas search for help in other countries like Canada or England, as there health care is for free and does not mean making debts. When you cannot pay, for example staying in a hospital, the Great American Health Care System offers a simple solution: SIMPLY KICKING YOU OUT OF HOSPITAL.
There is a well-known saying telling us that we should judge a society by the way it treats its poorest people. Well then, let`s better not judge the USA.
Well, I am not quite sure were certain stereotypes do come from, but I picked out those two as I think they are some kind of true, as it is a fact that America is the fattest country in the world and after watching Sicko I am just glad to live in Austria as this health care system is trash.(Hell, it is trash for real.)
Sicko Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UReMPrjMT9E
Watch and enjoy ;)
