Is The Diving Bell and the Butterfly a great movie, a good movie? I don't know. I have to be honest with you, during the entire film, I kept thinking the French healthcare system sure seems good to me. My mind kept focusing on the hospital rooms, the bedding -- curtains that billow in the breeze. The whole hospital experience seemed less foreboding, more serene. I say this not as a criticism of the film -- perhaps it's my frustration with our healthcare system, or maybe I was influenced by Michael Moore's documentary Sicko. There was a flurry of criticism when Moore's documentary seemed to indicate that the French medical system was better than ours. Many were outraged and claimed the French system was cluttered with delays in seeing doctors and being admitted to the hospitals. So as I watched Julian Schnabel's film, I couldn't help but make comparisons to our healthcare system. I kept thinking how great the hospital looked. They actually have windows that open. Fresh air. We don't have windows that open. And we got rid of fresh air. We have recycled air from sick people. But we trust that the air will be made fresh again.
There wasn't much opportunity to see food in the film, but the little I did see looked better. I know I am basing this on looks rather than tastes, but presentation is important. This French hospital had terraces where they could take the patients for some sun. And this hospital was near the beach. And if it's a good day, they can even take you down to the water. In Los Angeles, they have a hospital in Santa Monica. It's near the water, but it's windows don't open. It doesn't have any patios. And they certainly won't take you to the beach. And the French hospital seems to be fully staffed. A lot of nurses. Very attractive nurses. I've been a patient in a hospital here, and you can't find a nurse. Of course it's hard to tell who a nurse is since every one wears scrubs, from cleaning maintenance to the surgeons. They do have name tags, but you can only read them from a distance of one foot away from your bed, so the accepted practice in the American hospital is to keep yelling "Nurse!" until someone turns and provides assistance.
I know it may be an overgeneralization -- and not having done the research to validate this point of view -- but if someone has suffered a paralyzing stroke, and is left without the ability to even speak, and has to blink with one eye in order to communicate, and has the urge to write a novel, you are better off in a French hospital.
Good healing and medical decisions by healthcare professionals are typically trumped by profit driven business decisions from the insurance industry... it aint managed "care", its managed PROFIT.
And for those who blindly declare the US healthcare system is the best or one of the best in the world, one only has to look to the FACTS (infant mortality, unecessary deaths, quality of life and life expectancy, etc) to PROVE our system results are going from bad to worse.
Capitalism is like anything else: A little may be good tonic, but too much is poisonous. And the tonic now is literally killing us.
For decades certain sectors of our society were largely off-limits to the profit obsession, but now the neocons have applied their voodoo economics to every nook and cranny, with predictable results.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a single-payer system. We could easily pay for it, considering our current system cost twice as much as every other industrialized nation, BUT, until we control our borders, our ability to care for our own citizens will be compromised.
BTW, I've been breathing hospital air pretty much everyday for the last 20 years, I haven't had any problems. But, I agree, hospital food sucks-I've been eating that almost everyday for the last 20 years, too....
FYI, the American College of Physicians has put out a position paper advocating a single payer system....whether that means hospitals will be prettier, I can't tell. I would prefer green tile walls and not having to turn people away to concierge service and 47 million without assured access to healthcare, but that's just me...
My sister, a Registered Nurse who was often a 'charge nurse' on her shift, retired after only 15 years in her chosen profession. Why? She had such a high number of patients on each shift, she wasn't able to give the quality of care she was trained to provide. It drove her out of the medical field entirely.
I'd also like to know if all hospitals in France are such as Mr. Levinson saw in the film, or if this is only found in large cities. Are the more rural hospitals in France like this, too?
If medical care in France really is this good, I'm moving there. I'm completely disheartened by the system here, because it's been failing us for far too many decades now.
I researched it and then worked with a wonderful french interventionalist neuroradiologist who had perfected some simply fantastic procedures which saved patients' lives and permitted procedures to treat formerly inoperative vessel problems in the brain. Our neuroradiologist went to France to learn the procedures, and the French guy would come over for a couple weeks a couple times a year. I laughed and laughed when he said we were barbaric when he couldn't get a glass of wine with lunch in the cafeteria.
Honestly, I pumped him about the system, the equipment, their costs, and the taxes which were paid by the people and employers to cover their people. Their hospitals are NEW, CLEAN, HAVE INFECTION RATES WHICH ARE FAR BELOW OURS, and every person is covered. He helped the company develop the machine which we used and the French HOSPITALS PAID A LITTLE LESS THAN FIFTY PERCENT OF WHAT MY HOSPITAL PAID. The French come up with what they think is a fair price for equipment, supplies, meds, etc. and that is all they will pay AND THE COMPANIES ALWAYS TAKE IT.
He said we are fools, as they pay far less in taxes to maintain that system, and give excellent care to everyone, and I mean FAR LESS THAN WHAT WE PAY FOR PREMIUMS FOR A TOTALLY SCREWED UP SYSTEM. Everyone pays there, every employer and every employed person and the tax is much less than what we pay for Medicare, and less than half of what we pay for insurance, which doesn't cover everything or everyone.
You know, John Edwards and his mighty wealth sucked out of our health care system? In France edwards might still be poor, but he would have health care.
Maybe they should be called Freedom Hospitals.
- Tom
You are right on about being able to tell the cleaning people from a nurse. I work in a nursing home and these poor old folks don't know who to ask for assistance, they start yelling for help as soon as anyone remotely resembling a nurse walks in the room, which is rarely done. The nurses are too busy doing paperwork to actually take care of patients. How can anybody say we don't want another beurocracy, we already have one.