Dorie’s Different Reality

We watched Michael Moore’s latest film, Sicko, last night. He did a good job pointing out the outrageous, greed driven mess that is “the health industry” in America. Please watch it. Rent it, or check it out at the library. It gives us all something to think about.

There are moments in the film to make you weep. Like the couple in their 50’s who, having sold their home to pay medical bills, have to move in to their adult child’s spare room. (one of my dark fears) Or the fellow who cut off two fingers in a machine accident and could only afford to reattach one!

I blame the Puritans. I’m judgmental that way. It’s odd because, while we’ve become a big secular society, one bit of twisted Puritanism lingers on: that concept of The Elect. It’s like the Elect got mixed up with the basic concept of Yuppiehood, which is something like, the more money and stuff a person has, means, well everything. Like that CEO that left Home Depot with over $200 million. If money equals happiness and success, he must be on top of the heap. The people running health insurance companies aren’t doing it to provide health care. It’s a money making venture. Ditto the pharmaceutical companies. It’s all about making money. That’s the truly sick part.

One of our cherished illusions is that if you have medical insurance all will be well. Um no. There are people paid well to deny your claims and dispute the recommendations of your doctor. We used to have an insurance company that wrote my doctor about the medicine he’d prescribed for me- they wanted me on cheaper stuff. And “they” got their medical degree from where?

We don’t have insurance. We used to. Then my husband got the chop at his old job. With the new job, we can’t afford it right now. My fingers are crossed we’ll stay healthy another couple of years and then be able to purchase it (uh huh, sure) So healthcare reform is a big issue for me in this year’s election.

Meanwhile, I’m sort of reconciled that at ages 54 and 57, if we get sick now, we’ll live whatever our “normal” lifespan was meant to be. If it hurts, I hope we can afford the good drugs. If we make it to 65, hey we’ll get Medicare- for all that’s worth.

To be sure Moore mixes politics into the film. Hey, it’s his film and he can do what he wants. Sicko makes healthcare in Canada and the UK sound like nirvana. I invite blogging people who live in those places to comment. Do you like the way things are done in your country? Right wing leaning radio talk shows here make the nationalized health care in other countries sound like pure hell. Have you found that to be the case?

I think Moore is way optimistic that a big benevolent government would fix everything, where I don’t trust the government that much. But he rightly points out that for a big, wealthy country, we’ve got one sucky system of looking after each other. I think it’s way more important than politics when people die because their insurance claims are denied.

But believe it or not, you won’t find it so hot
If you ain’t got the do re mi. Woody Guthrie, 1937
(he was talking about being a migrant farm worker in 1930’s California. But it also sums up being sick and “insuranceless” in the US)

What are the basic tenets of every world religion? (she asks rhetorically) Feed the hungry, tend to the sick, don’t let anybody sleep out in the cold. Maybe that’s why America is in a “downturn” on so many cultural levels.

Bad Karma.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 at 9:09 am and is filed under Culture, Film. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.