browser life

First of all, it doesn't necessarily result in health, and secondly, the people responsible don't really care. Um, can you tell I went to see "Sicko" yesterday? Documentaries rarely come to theatres in Sioux Falls, and this one only arrived last weekend, so I thought I'd better get on it.

I went to an afternoon showing, expecting an empty theatre. But it was nearly full, and most of the people in attendence were elderly, many with canes. I saw one person who was perhaps college age, and there were probably three my age.

"Sicko" is Michael Moore's look at the American health care industry, specifically, those who are insured but still face dire consequences should they be so unfortunate as to become ill or injured. He examines what tactics insurance companies use to deny valid claims, why politicians can't or won't help the average Joe get appropriate low or no cost care, and what happens to the people who slip through the cracks. And he goes to Canada, England and France to see how their universal health care compares.

I've been a Michael Moore fan since "Roger and Me", so I am accustomed to and enjoy his comedic use of film clips and sarcasm to get his points across. These balance out the usually very serious underlying subject matter and keep his documentaries from becoming too depressing to watch. This was particularly effective when he dramatized the conceit that socialized medicine was akin to Communism.

This is not to say that the film was all fun and games. On the contrary: I know I was not the only one weeping at the story of the woman whose daughter died because an HMO wouldn't authorize an ER visit, the man who died because his insurance denied every single cancer treatment his doctors prescribed, the 9/11 rescue workers with resulting permanent damage to their bodies who couldn't get treatment because they were not members of the approved New York rescue units. And I couldn't have been the only audience member shocked at the reasons insurance companies gave applicants for refusing coverage, such as labeling a yeast infection a pre-existing condition, denial for being too thin or too fat, telling a woman with cervical cancer that she was too young to have the ailment.

And for those of you who have written Moore off as a liberal, he doesn't let either political party off the hook on this issue. He points out that while Hillary Clinton's attempt at health care reform was admirable, she later accepted money from the health care industry for political gain just like the Republicans did. I found the tape recordings of Nixon approving of the concept of the HMO in the 1970's to be chilling.

Moore's visits to Canada, England and France were fascinating. Contrary to what Americans have been led to believe, the wait for most care at a clinic or emergency facility was not longer than here, the quality of most care met or exceeded ours, and the populace was not taxed in excess of what they would have paid for medical coverage here. France's benefits seemed to be the most generous, providing six months PAID leave for new mothers as well as house calls.

When Moore gets back from France, he finds out that some hospitals in the US have been forcing patients who can't pay into cabs and literally dumping them on the curb in front of a homeless shelter. These patients have broken bones, wounds that haven't healed, are too disoriented to know where they are, and some are still in hospital gowns with IVs. This is not something that should happen to any human being.

But it wouldn't be a Michael Moore film without controversy. After hearing that the terrorist prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay (which is located in Cuba but is designated as American property) were receiving free health care, he decided to prove a point by loading boats with Americans who couldn't get proper care and take them there, asking that these people receive the same quality of care as the prisoners. Naturally, he was denied access.

Legally, the responsible thing to do would be to turn around and go back to Florida. But Moore instead went to Havana and asked a Cuban hospital to treat those he'd brought with him. They did so, willingly and efficiently, not something Americans have been told to expect in a poor Communist country, and the local fire department paid tribute to the 9/11 workers.

This is Michael Moore's most excellent documentary to date. Like the others, it will make you laugh and cry, and if you have any intelligence at all, it will make you think. But unlike the quandry of some of his other subjects, Moore has a very clear answer to "Sicko"'s dilemma: we need some form of universal health coverage, and we need it now.

I can't agree more. My mother's cancer went undiagnosed for two years while she was blown off by the puppets controlled by her HMO, and by the time someone did the proper scans, she was too far gone to be helped, and she died four months later. And on a much more mundane level, it is absolutely ridiculous that someone on disability like me should have to spend a third of my family income on medical expenses, even though I have insurance on par with Medicare.

If "Sicko" is being shown in your local theatre, go see it. Now.