Sicko

Sicko

I told you I was sick. – engraving found on several tombstones

She was only in her early 20s, that age when you don’t think past tomorrow. You are still trying to figure out who you are and what you are going to do with your life. You don’t think about breaking your leg, getting sick, or getting in a car accident and that is actually what happened, the crumpling of metal, the breaking of glass, and a young girl with her whole life ahead of her now lies in the hospital with a broken back. Now, America has one of the best health care systems in the world if you are lucky enough to have the right health insurance, but if you don’t, welcome to snake pits and bankruptcy. So what is a parent to do? They played by the rules their whole life, saved up for the golden years, and it all vanished in that moment. This young woman is one of the reasons I believe that America need health care reform.

There is an elephant in the room, and if we don’t do something pretty quickly we are not going to be able to get the smell out of the carpet. Here are the facts with no commentary or spin. Nearly 45 million Americans have no health insurance. Because we are the only industrialized country in the world that has their health care coverage tied to their jobs, more than 76 million people found themselves without coverage at some point in the last couple of years. In other words, this is equal to the population of our three largest states, California, Texas, and New York combined. Roughly one/sixth of Americans are walking around without any health care to speak of at this moment. Look at your watch for a minute, during that period, five more people have lost their health insurance. Thirty-eight percent of Americans and 68 percent of those with low-income at some point in the last four years had no health insurance coverage. Roughly half of all African-Americans , 61 percent of Hispanics, and 40 percent of Asians were uninsured for an extended period of time during the last 4 years. Of these families, 56 percent had full time employment during the time period they were uninsured. These are just numbers unless it is you.

Well, that doesn’t affect me, maybe this will. Roughly 50 percent of all bankruptcies are due to overwhelming health care costs. Most of these people have insurance, but even that small deductible adds up pretty quickly especially when a person is unable to work due to illness. For those of you who have insurance, Satchel Page once said, “Don’t look back, something might be gaining on you.” Well, you should be able to feel the hot breath of the insurance company monster on your back. Health care costs are outpacing increases in wages. For example, two years ago, the average American got a 4 percent increase in pay while premiums increased by 15 to 18 percent. Next year, it is estimated that a family policy will cost up to $15,000. George W. Bush’s answer to this crisis, tax cuts. One little problem with this wisdom. The people who don’t have health insurance probably are mostly below the minimum tax rate anyhow and probably are not paying $15,000 in taxes. Another example of George strumming his guitar while Americans goes under.

American businesses are starting to feel the squeeze. Walk into a Starbucks. That $6 or $7 bucks you plop down is not going to pay Juan Valdez for his beans. The majority of it is going for health insurance for the person waiting on you. It adds to the price of almost everything you pay that is made in America. These are costs that foreign manufacturers do not have to cover. This is sending jobs south of the border and overseas. Small businesses, which are getting squeezed by insurance companies worse than being visited by Michael Corleone and Tony Soprano, are passing the costs onto their workers and cannot compete with big businesses, which are able to garner group rates. Certain employees can never think about going to smaller mom and pop operations, or starting their own business, because of pre-existing conditions. All of this retards the American economy. Still, statistics and examples are as meaningless to most people, like Jessica Simpson at a convention of economists. Until middle class America starts getting squeezed like the zit on the face of the local teenager, nothing will happen and even then their screaming will have to overcome the power of the insurance lobby. Until Ward and June have to sell their house to cover the Beav’s hospital stay, insurance companies and HMOs will not even bother wearing a mask while they hold us up.

America might be number one, but not when it comes to health care where we have the 37^th best health care system in the world according to the World Health Organization and pay twice as much as they those ranked in the top ten to have it. Here is what is most maddening about the current situation. 80 percent of Americans favor some sort of universal health care and are even willing to have their taxes raised to cover the costs. Well, $1.5 trillion of our economy swirls around the health care industry. That is a lot of coinage going into the pockets of insurance companies. To insure their profits, they are making sure to leave a few dollars on the dressers of our politicians after they get done doing what they are doing to the American people.

Enter Michael Moore, the bane of conservative America, the last proud liberal. Like George Armstrong Custer surrounded by Indians, Moore has been attacked on all sides by radio hosts and Fox talking heads across this country. Those of the right overreact to the round sloppily dressed man in the Detroit baseball cap like a piece of raw meat at Siegfried & Roy show. The former editor of Mother Jones has taken on the power structure with his documentaries, television shows, and books. His last documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11 earned $119 million. To put this in perspective, the previous highest grossing documentary was Moore’s Bowling for Columbine, which took in just $21.5 million. Even though he has been smeared more than a third grader learning to finger paint, the left’s demigod has set his sights on the health care system. Over 18,000 people emailed Moore with their horror stories once they found out the subject matter of his next documentary. If you listen carefully, you can already hear Fox News’ and Rush’s conservative offspring squealing like scalded pigs about the unfairness of the documentary without ever seeing one frame of the film and the spinning of conservative think tanks as they try to challenge every fact presented. Big Pharma and the healthcare industry have formed their war rooms to battle this one man before one frame of this film sees light. Almost every major Pharmaceutical manufacturer, including Pfizer, AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline have sent memos instructing their employees not to speak to Moore. Millions and millions, more than it cost to make this film, will be spent trying to neutralize him.

So, how is the film? Michael Moore is not an original thinker. He draws from material and concepts already out there and serves them up for a mass audience. Moore’s film bounces around with himself in the role of the wide eyed innocent, Moore not only details those in America who are at the bottom of the health care ladder, but shows how the organizational hell and insurance pre-approvals, hurts those who have dutifully paid their premiums every month. He then jets across the world to show that third world countries like Cuba and El Salvador have better healthcare for their people than we do. He also goes to countries with socialized medicine like England, France, and Canada, with all those “evil Canadian drugs,” to find out if their systems are the hells often portrayed. "Just ask a Canadian!" President George Bush bellows. Moore does. Moore documents how the roots of our current health care system go back to the presidency of Richard Nixon, and how the insurance companies spent over $100 million to defeat the Clinton health care plan and have 4 lobbyists for every member of Congress. I have avoided detailing what Moore discovers in America and across the world because this will be the most reviewed movie of 2007. Each and every scene will be gone over in detail, especially by conservative commentators who will try to deliver it a death of a thousand cuts. I found myself crying watching this film, crying for this country, crying for those 45 million without health insurance and those who have it, especially one young woman with a broken back. You can give her that.

Verdict: You Will Cry For This Country Watching This Documentary