So, I managed to see an early completely legal *cough* copy of Michael Moore’s new movie, Sicko, last week. First, off I think it’s definitely his best movie to date. He manages to avoid a lot of the sensationalism of his earlier movies, until the whole trip-to-Cuba thing at the end which I felt was somewhat overdone, and focuses on individual accounts of the failure of the American health system. As to the stories themselves, if they don’t infuriate you then you need to grow both a heart and a brain. The idea that human beings would allow others to die in order to save a little bit of money (in an enormously profitable industry) is sickening, although unsurprising given the general callousness with which we treat each other as a species.
Watching the news last night, I saw a CNN (maybe MSNBC) piece on the film and they brought up two criticisms which I felt like addressing.
First, they said that objections have been made regarding the lack of a “voice” of the pharmaceutical/insurance companies in the film. You know what though? these companies do have a voice. It’s called every fucking thing you see or read about health care in this country. I don’t need to hear Blue Cross’ side, I know what it is; a bunch of bullshit regarding how they deeply, deeply care for all their customers, while, at the same time, they allow those customers to DIE in order to save money.
Second, and I believe this is a far more valid complaint, Moore doesn’t really examine the weaknesses of socialized medicine, specifically wait times (especially in Canada). I agree with this complaint, however, I feel that the weaknesses of socialized medicine are so far out-weighed by the strengths that it’s almost ludicrous to use things such as wait times as arguments against socialized care. It’s really a simple choice: would you rather have to wait an extra week for your knee surgery? or die of brain cancer because the insurance company decides you don’t need an operation? People in Canada are not being told to wait on life-saving surgery, instead it is non-essential work that is delayed. Furthermore, no one has ever said anything about, you know, attempting to improve on the Canadian system (God forbid). Of course, there are some elements of socialized medicine that are troubling. For example, the ability of the people controlling the system to impose moral judgment on legal activities which could impact care (smoking, being overweight, I’m sure if it was in America being gay would be a problem) . However, I would rather deal with this problem then the wreck of a system we have now.
Finally, a complaint not articulated in the CNN piece but one which I feel is quite important to address is the utter terror in America of anything related to socialism. Why? I don’t know. We’ve already adopted the following “measures of advanced countries” from the Communist Manifesto (some could argue more, but this is already a really long post):
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the populace over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children’s factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc.
It’s hard to argue that these changes have been for the worse (although Republicans do seem to want to abolish free education, see vouchers/school choice program, cuz you know fuck the poor). While I certainly do not advocate Communism, I don’t really see the problem with the government providing a vital and necessary service for its populace (but then again I’m not making millions in profit on prescription drugs, so…).
Finally, this movie reinforces the sobering fact that the United States is rapidly falling behind the rest of the world in a huge number of arenas. 37th internationally in health? That’s simply horrible and we should be ashamed. Beyond health, look at internet capabilities, the Japanese internet infrastructure is orders of magnitude more advanced than ours, as is a number of other nations. The French have managed to use stem cells, which thanks to our fearless leader we can’t experiment with, to regrow a human heart. The US was kicked off the world drug task force for being too draconian. None of the Republican candidates for president will endorse the PROVEN theory of Evolution (yes Virginia, evolution is proven). We have incredibly high crime rates (compared to other industrialized nations) and the largest prison population in the world. We don’t allow gays equal rights, we torture people, and on and on.
OK this was going to be a simple movie review and got a bit out of hand. I apologize for all my ranting, but sometimes, looking at the path this country has set itself on, it’s hard not to be saddened and troubled.
All right, I’m going to attempt to refrain from politics both in the blog and on the tumblr for a little bit. Also, I’m going to try and branch out into some other stuff, talk about disc and other sports (maybe tomorrow) plus the usual book/movie reviews. Also I’m toying with a new sort of post, but it’s still embryonic so stay tuned.
