Ramble

I was so moved after initially viewing Michael Moore’s new film, SiCKO, that I immediately dashed to my trusty iBook and wrote him a lengthy e-mail of support only to have it bounced by his e-mail server because apparently everyone else who saw the movie decided to do the same thing.

SiCKO is a film that will make you very, very angry if you are unfamiliar with the darker side of the health care system in this country. For me, it was a captivating enumeration of information that I already knew, but had never seen so eloquently examined. Refreshingly absent most of the usual Moore shtick (Yes, yes, there is that Cuba thing, I said “most”), the film’s real heart revolves around examining a simple question, “Why?”

Why do we allow the kind of health care horror stories, detailed in SiCKO, to occur in the richest nation on Earth? Why do we spend so much more of our GDP on health care than the rest of the developed world and have so little to show for it? Why do we allow our political system to be hijacked by the health care lobby? The history of the situation we find ourselves in may be complex, but Moore provides a simple solution to our dilemma, a single-payer system, like in France!

When I talk to people about the film and as I have done for years, bring up examples of single-payer systems working in other nations, including our neighbor to the North, they are inevitably overcome with a pained expression and go into a litany of problems these countries allegedly have with their systems, from wait times for elective procedures, to lower doctor pay, and always there is the background assumption that government can do no right and we are better off taking our chances with the current system than daring to put our medical fate into the hands of a government bureaucracy (as opposed to the private, unaccountable bureaucracy we have now). But, I think these critiques really miss a fundamental point of difference between America and these other countries.

Moore may glaze over the problems these single-payer systems have (and they do have many), but that is in service to a greater goal. He is attempting to re-frame the health care debate in this country to that of a moral choice. The people of Canada, the UK, France, and the rest of the developed world chose to create health care systems, which far from perfect, at least treat health care as a right and not merely the privilege of the rich.

What Moore accomplishes in his film is a good slap in the face of the American people. After viewing the film, it is impossible to deny that our health care system is broken. But, I think in order to fix it, we must begin to admit that our current situation is not just the result of bad luck or the nefarious acts of an evil Nixon-led cabal (as suggested in the film). We supposedly live in a democracy and that means, we need to take responsibility for the situation we are in.

We listened to the corporate shills who said a universal health care system would be the end of freedom and we elected representatives who were more interested in lining their campaign coffers with health care industry donations than working in the best interests of their constituents. We, the people, let things get this bad, and it is time we fix our mistake.

The upcoming election, still so far off, is our best chance since the early nineties to change the frame of the health care debate in this country and maybe even achieve some real progress. What to do about health care is more than an economic question or even an ideological one. This is a moral question, one that is long overdue a healthy, open, examination.