thejulietfiles.com | Sicko is Right

Friday | November 9, 2007

Sicko is Right

Honestly, I actually felt a little bit sick after watching Sicko. Once again, for the third time, Michael Moore has succeeded in creating yet another excellent film, and in making me very pissed off at my country. Even if you're like me and you see Michael Moore as radical and one-sided, there isn't any denying that he is an important voice. That, and we have an enormous mess on our hands.

Here is where Moore and I disagree on this issue: I am not a believer in socialized medicine. I don't believe in it mostly because I can't understand how the quality can remain high unless SOMEONE PAYS FOR IT. If income tax rates aren't alarmingly elevated, then medical salaries are suffering. And I'm sorry, but I'm one of those people who thinks that after ten years of expensive, grueling education and another few years of sleepless nights, near-breakdowns and critical responsibility for the lives of others, PHYSICIANS AND RESEARCHERS SHOULD BE MAKING GOOD MONEY. Would you go through all of that crap to make $60K a year? I wouldn't. And anyone who actually knows a doctor knows that with the exception of a small percentage of them, they aren’t rich people.

I also hate the idea of putting governmental officials (who seem to always have their proverbial heads up their asses and can't even manage to keep my local post office or DMV running smoothly) in charge of medical decisions. I'm in favor of keeping those choices in the hands of physicians... the smart people, who've had years of education to prepare them to do just that.

The point at which I cross the line from "liberal" to "conservative" is the point at which it's assumed that because I do well financially, it's my responsibility to look after lazy people and illegal immigrants. Please don't get all bleeding heart on me here and start talking about how we need to help people who can't help themselves. I agree that we should help people who can't help themselves. I just don't think we should help people who won't help themselves. I have extensive personal experience with the latter and I’ll tell you what – I have no interest in hitching my financial wagon up to that.

All of this said, what are we going to do about the health care crisis in this country? If socialized medicine isn't the answer, then what is? Where in the Hell is all of the money going that's poured into our health care system?

For starters, I think we need a cap on salaries for health insurance executives. How about no bonuses. How about not giving health insurance companies the privilege of reporting record profits for the bazillionth quarter in a row. How about a cap on ridiculously high charges (like $200 Tylenol and $8K ambulance rides). Let’s make all of these people stop selling their souls to the Devil. How about this… if you’re nothing but a heartless capitalist then please be like Donald Trump or Bill Gates and go into a profession like technology or real estate or investment banking where people’s lives are not at stake.

I’ll admit that as somewhat of a fiscal conservative, my compassion does not lie as much with the uninsured as it does with the insured who falsely believed they’d be cared for in a time of crisis. Whether or not you want to admit it, our society… this country… the animal kingdom… the world is inherently based upon a “survival of the fittest” foundation. If you’re resourceful, strong, perseverant, you’ll find your way through. If not, you won’t. It’s not political… it’s realistic. What bothers me terribly, though, are the people who’ve paid into a system they’ve trusted for their entire lives only to be denied by that very same system at a time of life-threatening crisis.

These, to me, were the most disturbing parts of the film: the confessional testimony of a physician previously employed by a big insurance company, in which she stated that she’d denied a man a vital operation that would have saved his life, and that he later died as a result of having been deprived that operation; an interview with an insurance company employee in which it became revealed that the highest bonuses were given to adjusters with the highest number of claim denials; profiles of 9/11 rescue workers with respiratory and psychological problems related to their work at Ground Zero, who are not being cared for now; the woman carried by ambulance to a hospital after a terrible car accident whose claim wasn't covered because the ambulance ride had not been preapproved; the story of a couple the age of my parents who had to sell their lifelong home and declare bankruptcy because their insurance policy didn’t cover their illnesses; the story of a seventy-nine year old Medicare-covered man who still worked in a manual labor position to cover the cost of his prescriptions.

Yes, what’s most depressing to me are the people who pay… who do what they’re supposed to do and get screwed anyway. It's just terrifying. It's a problem that I really hope will improve sometime during my lifetime.

That, and I hope I never get really sick.

Filed Under: Arts , Current Events

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