Go See Sicko

Yesterday, we went to see the movie Sicko, a movie that should be required viewing for every American citizen. Yes, Michael Moore made it, so those wearing their right wing knee-jerk blinders will refuse to go, and, yes, Mr. Moore paints a rosy picture of the effectiveness of state run medical systems around the world, but also yes, the American health care system is a greedy mess that costs people more for care than any other system in the world and yet ranks #37 in the world in effectiveness. As Moore points out, that puts us one rank above Slovenia – or was it Slobbovia?! What everyone should see, though, is the comparison of the costs of care and the quality of care faced by American vs. those faced by citizens of France, England, Canada and Cuba under state run systems as presented by patients and physicians in both systems.

Before going on I must point out that I do not speak from total ignorance here myself. I was raised in a health care family and made my career in managing and consulting with primary care medical practices in rural areas. For years I have argued the two primary points raised in the movie; that if we as a society are willing to spend billions of our tax dollars to kill people, we should also be willing to spend fewer billions to care for them, and; that, as Moore so deftly put it, our nation would be better off if we were “we” oriented instead of “me” oriented.

I used to argue that all we needed to do was to expand the Medicare program to cover everyone and emplace a premium scale based on income. Between the last two administrations, though, Medicare has become privatized so that PPOs now limit patients’ choices of providers and access to secondary care. That leaves only one viable option in my mind and that is nationalization of the entire system. Sure that would initially cause a downgrade in facilities and high dollar service development but only because we have no history in the field. Maybe we would have to sit on folding chairs in waiting rooms instead of the lush couches I sat in Monday while waiting for an X-ray, but if the change resulted in changing the focus of care from maximizing profits to maximizing preventive and quality primary health care I could live with the folding chair.

The ultimate upshot, though, would be to lift the onus of health care costs from each of our personal economic pictures and reduce the capability of our government to wage inappropriate wars to keep the economy chugging along while lining big corporate pockets at the expense of the little guy.

If we ever get to national health care, the first effort ought to be to try and heal the national neurosis that allows us to think our tax money is better spent in killing people than in curing them.

Please. Go see this film and then urge everyone you know to go. In Springfield it is showing at Campbell 16 at 1:15, 4:05, 6:50 and 9:35.


Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- M. K. Gandhi

Individually we have little voice. Collectively we cannot be ignored.
But in silence we surrender our power. Yours in Peace -- BR