Welcome to EMR and HIPAA

After my previous post on Michael Moore’s movie Sicko, I was glad to find someone else who shared my own thoughts on the subject. Bob Vineyard does a much better job than I did at explaining my feelings on the subject. Here’s the part that I think is the most important part:

You would think after watching Sicko that everyone, everywhere has better health care than we do and there is no downside to health care in Canada, Great Britain, France or even Cuba.

If so, then why do Canadians cross the border into the U.S. to receive treatment? Why do Brit’s have to get in the queue and have treatment for certain conditions denied? Why is it Cubans can apparently get the best in health care yet 75% of them are illiterate, almost no one owns land and unemployment is rampant. Cubans may have excellent health care, yet many die each year from curable diseases for lack of medicine.

Wonder how Sicko missed this fact?