Attention: This post now lives permanently at http://blog.kgrothoff.net/2007/06/24/go-see-sicko-no-really-go-see-it/ - please go there for current updates.
Last night, the husband and I went to a special preview of Michael Moore’s new film, SiCKO. It doesn’t officially come out until next week, but when it does, go see it. I mean it.
Now, I know, some of you begin to breathe fire and drool rabidly at the mention of Mr. Moore’s name (something I don’t really understand, but you’re entitled), but let me just say, all politics aside, that it is an excellent film. Really. Fantastic. And for those of you still drooling rabidly, even the reviewer for Fox News liked it, so maybe you should just get yourself a handkerchief and calm the heck down. Wipe your mouth, seriously. And then go see the film, and complain about it later if you hate it.
I was, for many years, among the uninsured in the U.S. And I was pretty damned lucky - the worst thing that happened to me in that time was that I got a terrible ear infection. Now, that was bad enough. That terrible ear infection cost me over $400 to treat in the mid-90’s, since I of course waited until it was too late to treat it; emergency rooms supposedly can’t refuse service because you can’t pay, see, but doctors’ offices certainly can. My ex-fiancé’s relatives were trying to convince me that smoke or urine in my ear would make it better (no, I did not let anyone urinate in my ear, thank you… but these were down-home Nascar folks, so it’s not entirely surprising, and at least they were trying to help. I think), and so I sat around miserable until I ended up in the emergency room, screaming every time my ear throbbed. And paid $400 for it, albeit over the course of several months of harassment.
But I shouldn’t complain. I didn’t have an accident. I didn’t get cancer. I got the flu several times, but I didn’t end up with pneumonia or anything. Yes, there were several times where my life would have been made easier if I’d seen a doctor, but I only got the normal stuff folks get every day. And fortunately, a cold you caught 10 years ago that is now gone is not considered a pre-existing condition, whether you went to the doctor or not.
But even insured, Americans aren’t exactly well-served by their HMOs. This is no secret, and yet there is still this myth in the U.S. that we have the greatest health care system in the world. Maybe we have the greatest health care system money can buy, and if you have the money to buy it, you can have it - I don’t know. I’m lucky enough to have great health care coverage right now, but I’d bet money that if something really awful happened to me, it wouldn’t stay that way.
Now, some of you fiscal conservatives out there are whining, “well, why should I have to pay for your illnesses if I’m healthy?” And some of you are the same people who spout the marketing hype about how Americans are the most generous people in the world. I have news for you, bud… when you have a heart attack, or you get old, some part of the system will be paying for you, whether it’s your HMO or Medicare, and if you’re not completely covered by those (as most people eventually are not), unless you’re a millionaire, you’ll end up struggling financially too. We’re all mortal, peeps. And we can all get sick or get hurt. And even if socialized medicine isn’t perfect, realize that nothing is. Running a capitalist model with people’s lives is ridiculous.
But the really great part of SiCKO, frankly, is that it shows those bits of American life that we all know about, vaguely, but are able to ignore or not experience. I’m not just talking about the folks on Skid Row in Los Angeles (if nothing else depresses you, just go see how the poor and mentally ill live in L.A. - I saw them every day on the Blue Line to work, and it is completely demoralizing), but folks like Donna Smith (who was at last night’s screening), who is a middle-class, working American who had insurance and still ended up having to move in with her kids when both she and her husband got seriously ill because of deductables. It’s not OK to throw the poor, the mentally ill, or the homeless out on the streets because they can’t pay for medical care, and it’s not OK to throw your mother, father, or grandfather out there either. Persist in thinking that what few social services we have in this country take care of everyone and complain that you don’t even want to be paying for that, fine, but you’re wrong. What Moore does brilliantly in the film is to expose what actually happens.
And then, there are the corporations. Oh yes, the corporations. Now, can someone please tell me why everyone buys into this idea that the free market will automatically settle to whatever works best? The unregulated free market will eventually settle to whatever makes money, and no more. And when I say “makes money”, I mean “makes money for the shareholders and CEO”, not “what makes money for the tax base”, since we all know that big corporations get huge tax breaks. What I found most shocking were the discussions with medical reviewers from major insurance companies and HMOs who stated flat out that they had a quota for denials (regardless of validity of the claims!), and if they exceeded that quota by denying coverage to more patients, they were given bonuses.
So… the person deciding if your surgery for colorectal cancer has an incentive (keeping his or her job, getting more pay, etc.) for finding a way to deny your claim, even if it’s legitimate.
Yeah, that works, folks. Seriously. Also? I am the Queen of England.
Moore looks at the systems in France, Britain, Canada, and Cuba afterwards, and I promise you, even if you’ve heard about the sorts of problems the British NHS has, the picture it gives of universal health care versus what we let corporations do here is so startling it will make you want to cry.
So go see the film. You’ll learn something, I promise you.
Even if you love the president. 
And about those 9/11 rescue workers taken to Cuba, before you jump to conclusions, see what the film has to say. I promise you, you’ll be upset, and it won’t be about Moore being in Cuba.
P.S. Senator Clinton? Care to explain why you’re taking money from the HMO lobby? Universal Health Care advocate, my fat, white butt. You’ve got some serious explaining to do.
