Sicko

Yesterday I went to see Sicko, Michael Moore's documentary about the need for health care reform in America. It's a documentary that makes you laugh and makes you cry and then makes you want to write to your congressman or woman. I liked seeing this movie in the theater because you could hear other people's reactions to it. I was on the verge of tears a couple of times during the film and there was a collective gasp at seeing the amazing benefits of the French social welfare system. And Michael Moore gets out the bullhorn one more time, this time on a boat outside of Guantanamo Bay. Even as the movie was still playing, I could hear a guy start to discuss it with the person next to him, kind of annoying but it's cool that a movie is able to inspire that kind of reaction.

What's sad is that the health care horror stories in Sicko probably won't be surprising to most of us, since if you live in America you've most likely experienced yourself and/or heard others' stories of the unfairness and cruelty of the current system. It's a system based on greed where the interests of the patient often come last. We treat health insurance like it's a luxury when it really is a necessity.


I know Michael Moore's movies tend to be one-sided and not show, for example, the downside of having a generous social welfare system. But after seeing this movie I was completely convinced that a government-run health care system is the way to go, even if it means higher taxes. In the current system, it's a struggle to even get insurance in the first place, and even then you really don't know what will happen if you get sick--your insurance company may drop you or refuse to pay for treatment because it's 'experimental', and even with coverage you may still go bankrupt paying sky-high medical bills. There's no peace of mind. Maybe state-sponsored health care won't fly with conservatives (sigh), but at the very least couldn't we have a system where everyone has at least a minimum amount of health insurance? And some way to control health care costs? It's about time. Sicko is definitely a thought-provoking movie and I hope it will inspire some desperately needed reforms.