Michael Moore's SiCKO

I’m not sure how appropriate of a Christmas Eve movie selection it was (I'm Jewish, so what do I know?), but my boyfriend and I cuddled up on his couch and watched Michael Moore’s SiCKO last night. As you all likely know, I’m dealing with being one of the millions of Americans that can’t get health insurance for one reason or another. So I thought perhaps SiCKO would help enlighten me a bit about the American health system and perhaps help me figure out a way to get around it.

While I’m not the biggest Michael Moore fan (and that says a lot, since I’m pretty much a socialist), I think that the film is worth watching. As with any Moore film, you can’t expect it to be journalism because it doesn’t present an unbiased cover of the issue. Instead, Moore uses the stories that best make his argument. Lucky for him, his base argument – that the American healthcare system is f’d up – is one that many people would agree with, regardless of political leaning. However, he uses the movie to show how wonderful the healthcare systems are in places like Canada, England, France and yes, even Cuba. It turns out that getting free healthcare in these countries is a piece of cake, or so he’d like us to believe. While I’m sure that’s not always the case, the fact remains that in America, people like me, suffering from pre-existing conditions, can’t get low-cost (or any) healthcare in our country, while in other countries, these “evil” liberal societies, getting healthcare – at least basic healthcare – would not be an issue for me. It would be covered by the government.

The most shocking part of SiCKO was not how great the healthcare in these other countries is… because it all seemed too perfect, and I wanted to know the other side that Mr. Moore was so carefully hiding to make his argument.

The part that really made me cry was the story of one mother who had an infant who got sick. Her baby had a 104 fever and was burning up fast. What’s saddest of all is that this mother was insured. She had Kaiser – which is apparently a health insurance company that requires all its patients to go to its hospital and its hospital alone, regardless of how serious the emergency. Unfortunately, the Kaiser hospital was not extremely close to her house, so the ambulance that came when she called 911 took her and her child to the local hospital… which then refused to accept her because Kaiser wanted them to go to the Kaiser Hospital.

Long story short, by the time she drove her kid to Kaiser, the kid was basically DOA (dead on arrival.) That story really made me mad.

There’s really no denying that our healthcare system is terribly messed up in this country. The question is, how can we fix it? I think socialized medicine works in countries like Cuba, England and France because they are all much smaller than America. Obviously Cuba is struggling with some things, but healthcare? Well, all of its citizens seem to be pretty damn healthy, thanks for cheap meds and a hospital on nearly every block.

Moore is apparently in deep doo doo for going to Cuba without permission (he brings with him a few 9/11 rescue volunteers who are ill from lung conditions but not able to get healthcare to cover their health problems). But that part of the movie is a fascinating look into Cuba… this country that we’re all told is hell on earth (as he so humorously illustrates.) It might not be the best place to live (why else would Cubans try to get to Florida by swimming across the ocean?) but at least there the citizens can get proper healthcare.

I wonder what would work for America. It seems so anti-American to have a system that provides fair and equal coverage to every citizen. Isn’t our country built on the premise that the poor must get poorer for the rich to get richer? With that backing our democracy, how can healthcare be fixed? Isn’t America working BECAUSE the poor people are too sick to fight the system? Too busy working three jobs a day to vote?

That’s America.

On the same topic, I recently read that fellow PF blogger LuluGal of “How to Save Money” had to have an emergency hospital stay earlier this month that set her back $500. You can read all about how she suddenly took ill, passed out, and ended up needing surgery. The $500 must be her bill after insurance paid (it would be much more than that without insurance), but that’s still a hefty bill to pay when you’re in debt or trying to save money.

Since it is the season of giving, how about everyone who reads my blog consider donating a few bucks to Lulu? I don’t know this gal, but I think it would be nice for us to help her out. I just sent her 2 bucks. She has a PayPal donation account set up for her page, which is attached to the bottom of every entry. You can click on this text link to donate also.