I just saw Sicko and I swear to god, if I didn't have kids and a fiancee, I'd be packing a bag and moving to France or London right now. Ok, let me backpedal and preface this by saying that a) I am the most lenient movie critic around and am notorious for giving rave reviews for basically every movie I see and b) I am completely gullible when it comes to Michael Moore and basically don't question anything he says.
I'm usually not one for buying into propaganda, or what I believe to be propaganda, but I have to say that I totally buy everything he brings to light in this movie. I am just dumbfounded and, frankly, depressed, that we can live in the purported best, wealthiest country in the world yet the healthcare system is so horrific.
If you haven't seen the movie, you need to, but in the meantime allow me to summarize and put my own spin on it for you. ;)
The movie starts off with the horror stories of dozens of different people--from a couple who have to sell their house and move into their daughter's computer room because they were bankrupted by medical co-pays, to a woman who worked in the same hospital that denied her husband's life-saving bone marrow transplant because it was deemed "experimental" so he died, to the mom of an 18 month-old little girl who was brought to the hospital with a fever of 104 but denied treatment because the hospital wasn't a Kaiser facility and by the time the mom got her to the approved hospital the girl went into cardiac arrest and died, to volunteer 9/11 rescue workers whose lives have been ruined by the health problems caused by their heroism sifting through the rubble and helping save lives at ground zero.
As if that stuff isn't bad enough--and doesn't make you feel like it's just a matter of time until we all get cancer or something that ultimately won't be covered by health insurance and end up in the same position as the people in the movie--he then takes you on a tour of other countries' health systems: Canada, London, France and Cuba. I'm sure there is another side to the coin, but what he portrays just makes you feel like you're living in a dream--a very bad dream.
There are horror stories of "rich Americans" who are paying top dollar or whose employers are paying top dollar for health coverage who sill have to fight tooth and nail just to get routine medical care--and that's paying through the nose for it. Then he takes you to Canada where these very rational, nice Canadians all talk about how pleasant and effective--and absolutely free--their healthcare system is, then to London for more of the same, then on to the kicker, France.
When he gets to France it's like the grand finale of a fireworks display: he suddenly just bombarding us with how great France is in every way and how, by contrast, America sucks all the worse. My favorite scene is where he's in a restaurant with a bunch of American expats and they just start listing all the ways France kicks ass. Healthcare is free--and great: one French guy lives in America his entire adult life but then gets cancer so goes back to France for (free) treatment, then once he's cured, his doctor gives him a 3 month pass to "rest" so he can get his strength back, which he does in the South of France while being paid 100% of his salary (65% by the government and 35% by his employer). Then they start the litany of other unbelievably-good things in France: a legally-mandated minimum of five weeks of leave per yer--and that's not including unlimited sick time, an extra week for your honeymoon if you get married, and a day off if you have to move--the unheard of by American standards maternity leave, free childcare, free colleges....oh, and free babysitters that will come to your house and take care of your baby and even do your laundry! WTF?
I could go on but I'll save some surprises for when you go see it yourself; suffice it to say that even though I have never so much as set a toe outside this country (except to Canada when I was a young kid so I don't count that) and am the least worldly person I know, it made me want to pack a bag and get on the next flight to Paris. It made me wonder why I'm even living in this country of greedy morons, this country where we have access to the most expensive, sophisticated medical equipment and drugs in the world, yet the only thing that matters is making a buck. You watch this movie where he talks to people at hospitals in England and France and even Cuba and see how money doesn't even enter into the equation--it's like every other country is some kind of fairyland where there are these beautiful, clean hospitals where nobody has to wait more than a few minutes and everyone gets top-notch FREE healthcare. Meanwhile, back in the good ol' U S of A Kaiser is sticking sick old ladies into cabs with a voucher for a one-way fare to skid row and our "Heroes" can't even get tested for--let alone treated for--illness sustained when they were willingly sacrificing their lungs at ground zero for the love of their country.
What's the catch? And will things here ever change or is the grim reality he exposes just a fact of life here in the land of the free and the home of the brave?
