I must have been feeling pretty bored the other night, or "insomial". I felt like getting out, so I looked up the movies, and there at 10:30 was the last showing of the day ... but the movie was "Sicko" by Michael Moore. I debated, but I did not have much time, so I ended up going to see it.
I have seen "Bowling For Columbine", and "Fahrenheit 911" and there were things that I thought were good but mostly I remember being the one who threw water on the ideas put out by the people I went with. Moore's style seemed to sarcastic, not factual or rigorour, very opinionated with few answers or ideas. I was also put off by a few things I recall, like badgering Charlton Heston about being a face for the NRA, or showing pictures of Bush in the classroom reading to the children during 911. This just rubbed me the wrong way, and seemed to focus on the wrong things. There is a lot to criticise in all these issues, why did he have to take the low road. Just not my cup of tea.
So, I was not expecting much from "Sicko" ... maybe a little info and at least the Liberal point of view on the issue of health care, which is of concern to me since I am getting to the age where people record starting to have problems with health, health care, insurance, and the system.
As I thought, the movie started right out focusing on individuals. But not really the total losers that I thought I'd see. Regular people and their problems ... and then a lot of regular people and a lot of problems, huge problems for older people that can mean death, and for younger people can mean a lifetime of problems and unproductivity for everyone. OK that was bad. Then problems with some of the people who we call heroes, who worked at the WTC during and after 911. Dumped.
People who were sick and at hospitals with no, not enough, or the wrong kind of insurance, and rejected, some driven while sick to skid row and dumped on the street.
Michael Moore asks ... is this America? Day after day, year after year we hear our politicians talking about what a great country this is. We are the richest most powerful nation on the face of the Earth, in this history of civilization and so on. Do we get that way by grinding people down and throwing them away?
The next part of the movie goes into the alternatives. The horrible stories we are hear within a required amout of time after the phrase "socialized medicine" is ever mentioned in the media - 3 - 2- 1- and the rebuttals pop up. Waiting lines. Doctors not paid enough. Not enought doctors. Costs too much. Never work in America ... there are quite a few of them. So, Moore pays a visit to Canada first, and then Britain, then France, and finally of all places Cuba.
Now Canada I know is OK because having worked for a multinational I interacted with Canadians and Americans in Canada, and they have nothing but good things to say about their health care. Same in the movie. When the American systems comes up ... the system where we suckers who believe what we are fed through the media, Canadian's faces get all screwed up, and their eyebrows go up. Why? Why do we pay the most in the world and get the least care?
There was even an answer ... it was recorded in the Nixon White House when Edgar Kaiser wanted to start a medical insurance system where profit was made by denial of care. Right there on film.
Then some further statistics about the American system ... why is America the greatest country on the face of the Earth down in the infant mortality statistics lower than Cuba?
Lots of myths are brought up ... and I won't really say that Michael Moore smashes them, because there is lots more information to look at to make a real decision. BUT ONE OF MOORE'S POINTS IS THAT WE NEVER GET THAT INFORMATION. Billions of dollars flow from pharmaceutical companies to the media, the doctors, and the government to make sure that we never know the truth, and that we get the company line on all of these issues ... a kind of UNFAIRNESS DOCTRINE the way I look at it.
What Moore does is to loosen us up, to get us to think, to get us to ask questions and demand answers ... and maybe if enough people stomp up and down and yell loud enough we can get some answers and make some changes. I personally liked what I saw in the Canadian and European systems. Free health care. No filling out huge forms when you are in misery or wondering if you have the money or can get insurance. I have lived enough and seen enough from myself and people I have known to know that our health care system does not work, and it is mean, it is the opposite of what the medical profession has to be about to do what it supposed to do.
Michael Moore changed my attitude about health care, and other "socialized" things. I guess after so many years of being lied to about these things it has finally gotten to the point with the Bush Administration that I just feel like they all just think we are frickin' idiots that will believe anything. So I now support socialized medicine, and I would like to see whether it helps this country to heal from the wounds we have suffered, and the experiment surely would be a better investment that Iraq was. Those of you who read of my rantings on the war on Islamic-Naxism know that I am a full supported of that effort ... but Iraq, as an experiment, or battle in that war has not exactly proven out ... why not invest in our own people for while and see what happens. Nothing can hardly be worse than this sicko institution of health care that we have right now.
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Comments: 25
Yes! America should try investing in its own people for a change.
This whole Darwinian "survival of the fittest" thing the Christian Right does can leave so many behind.
If we want anything socialist to work in the U.S. then we first have to get the people out of government to talk so much about hating government.
Talk to people you don't know, who don't look like you. Make a concerted effort to learn about the real America that we don't see on TV and then come back and talk.
Yes, it is. There are a lot of people out there that think they have health insurance. They just haven't gotten sick yet.
A lot of what passes as "health insurance" should be called provider protection insurance. It "insures' that providers will receive at least a portion of what they bill but does not protect the insured from catastrophic medical bills. Nor does it insure that the insured will receive timely and appropriate treatment.
Health Insurance for profit will never work. There needs to be a lot of changes including the FDA.
People all over the world are realizing how off-track America is now ... we are starting to become like the old Soviet Union with a few rich families deciding they do not give a damn about the rest of the country, that is why they want this illegal open immigration thing, then they think they will ZERO responsibility.
We cannot go forward and have a country when 1/3 ... $0.30 of every dollar goes into some asshole's pocket who doesn't do anything for anyone but himself.
says, but this is a feeling kind of thing. It is a life, country, human, kind of thing and we are taking this capitalistic thing way way too far to the point that we are turning our people into expendable terrorized robots. It all ties together, and argue with Moore about some thing, I think he has a lock on the big picture and has to figure a way to communicate what he sees to people's hearts.
This movie is sad when you realize the bill of goods we have been sold in the US, the mindset we are supposed to perfect while the Bush-rich people get out of jail free, take millions for their jobs, whether they do them or not, or how well, are given high-paying power jobs for being children of the core group. This has gone to far and it is clear what trajectory it is on ... certainly an inhuman one.
Michael is the exception. How do you get off calling him an America-hater too? No one born in this country can hate it without good reason. I do not think he hates it, if he hated it he would not spend his whole life and career trying to make movies to make it better. There is a lot of room for improvement in this country no matter how much you love it.
You are responding to this as a stereotypical far right wing brain washed follower, who lacks the ability to think for himself. I know, from other writing you've done that you're not that blind. Why do you state things you can't possibly know such as Moore "hates" America? Wanting to correct the wrongs of America does not translate to hate in my book. It seems that right wingers are prone to spread that word around at the droop of a hat so I assume either they have a lot of hate or think about it a lot more than others.
Bruce,
Appreciate the great review. It is the first really informative review I've read on the movie. I've not had any opportunity to see it.
It is amazing how we've been brainwashed that "socialized medicine is bad" when in fact about half of the insured people in this nation are receiving socialized medicine and it is working quite well!
I'm well aware of the money that has been spent to keep us in fear of Socialized medicine. The doctors have backed off somewhat but the drug and insurance companies will spend their last dollar to prevent such a change. If you've lived enough years you've seen the horror stories of the system we have and should be ready for something different.
I applaud Michael Moore's efforts to bring this issue to the forefront and keep this issue in the faces of all of us, especially as we near elections. Any press that keeps an issue out there in the minds of the electorate is GOOD press.
Like the price for medical service if different if you are insured or not. So being insured gets you lower prices. Why is that? Then, if you are a member of a group, in your job say, why is that group any different from the larger group of all Americans.
The illogic of this system is only allowed because people do not understand it, are so confused and just relieved when they have coverage, or think they do, that they do not want to think about it.
The logic of one day you are working, and the next day you are laid off, or retire for example. Then you either get to maintain your health insurance LEGALLY for a while, then you drop off and are alone, ie. not in a group. Then the insurance company says, we used to charge you around $400 a month for your coverage when you were in this group working for company "x",but now that we have you isolated and alone, you will have to re-apply to "some" insurance company.
That is when the rule out your pre-existing conditions for coverage. That is when they say you are too heavy or too thin, or whatever, and we want to charge you over $1000 a month to insure you, now that you are weak and scared and on your own, not a member of a group plan.
Imagine what that must be like when you are sick, or do not have the money to pay for it?
No, I was never much of a fan of Michael Moore, but this movie is 100% accurate, and the point is that we are all a member of the "group" of Americans, and we should not just think about ourselves in this or we take another step in the dismantling and destruction of our society. I think it has gone far enough for me anyway.
I'm certainly ready to pay a little more for my health care that would cover someone else in more need to cover the possibility that maybe I will be the one who needs it, and because if the "group" is the country, it solves the problem, and will be much much cheaper, not to mention putting out of business the blood-sucking bastards who are killing people by denying them medical service so they can line their pockets.
I also thank God for my sister (a scientist) who filled in where the doctors failed, for it turned out they had NOT done every test known to medicine, and she straightened them out. But, doctors aren't perfect.
Re: " it's not that damn bad."
It's that damn bad and worse. Michael Moore is under such scrutiny that he would be a fool to promote anything he couldn't prove. He is not a fool so it is more than likely he only scratched the surface.
Deborah I completely agree. One no-brainer think anyone can do is to go to Michael Moore's website for "SickO" and read about HR:676 and sign the petition. Emailing your Governor, Senators and Congressional Representatives never hurts either.
My thinking is that the numbers are being vastly manipulated in this country so that all money and power is concentrated in the hands of a few. Notice how there is never enough money for anything. How are the European countries doing it? Even Cuba can get health care done the best they can, why can't we?
I am for a non-profit health care system, that seems to be the defining label that defined most of the other health care systems in the developed world. There are some private industry systems, like Germany, and I think Japan, but they are more or less non-profit.
I'm so very sick of the US and our system of screwing everyone that is not really rich. How can we hope to survive with that kind of attitude and more crippled and sick people?
The root problem is our corrupted Capitalist system, and Michael Moore just released a movie called "Capitalism: A Love Story" about the problem with our system too. It is pretty good too. You should check it out.