Sicko thoughts. No, not that kind.

[nenena]

Because I was feeling particularly patriotic yesterday (July 4th), I watched Michael Moore's Sicko. Brief and spoiler-free impressions: I liked it a lot more than Moore's previous two efforts. The movie included a lot more, you know, actual facts and arguments than it did vaguely sinister insinuations and Bush-is-stupid-therefore-I'm-right moments. I think this is the first film that Moore crafted to intentionally engage the "opposition," so to speak, rather than just preach to the choir.

I still had problems with it, though. That bit at the end about the website? I think it was a serious mistake to include it. But that's just me. And the Guantanamo Bay bits that heavily implied that criminals don't deserve health care. (They do.) But other people have already addressed these things.

I think I understand a little bit more about the opposition thanks to the movie. I can see why some medical doctors are opposed to universal, government-run health care: after all, do they want to end up treated like shit and with shit pay, like public school teachers, firemen, policemen, and librarians (to draw the same parallels that Moore drew)? No, of course not. Moore interviews one British doctor who lives in a million-dollar house and drives an Audi in order to assure us that this will not be the case. Still, one example is not entirely convincing, in the face of America's long history of treating its public servants like, well, shit. If I were a doctor, I wouldn't exactly be jumping at the chance to become a public servant, either.

Feministe has much better and more intelligent thoughts about the film, all of which I agree with.

Comments

[broccoman.livejournal.com]

What I'd like to see is the government get in the business of health care insurance, and use the power of the free market to drive down costs, combined with anti-monopolist/regulatory conditions on drug prices. The downside to said regulation though is the drug companies will quit researching so much.

Mandate Americans have health insurance, either public or private- the public form would be done through the income tax system. The sickest Americans will take the public system, and the private systems, which will self-select towards the healthiest, will lower prices to compete with the public system. The health care costs will be handled through an income tax surcharge (basically the reverse of a deduction, so the poorest Americans would pay very little for it)

Illegals would not get this system- they would be on their own. Quite simply, if they want health care, they can go to their country of origin for it. This would also help provide a negative incentive to illegal immigration (which is needed before things get bad in the US)

[orthoflame.livejournal.com]

Haha, this was posted all over the pre-health communities a short while ago. I must say, the comments at the two nurse-related communities were a hoot to read. med_school didn't end up quite as interesting as I thought it'd be, but at least things didn't get wanky (like in the nurse ones).

I pretty much agree with you and don't have much to add in general (plus, the computer I'm on won't even let me re-watch the movie). I don't think I'd immediately consider wanting to be a public servant either. This isn't saying I hate the idea entirely. It just I don't think it'd work quite that well, especially with how we as a society treat public servants. The British doctor with the million-dollar house is just one case of a happy 'servant.' To me, he may have just lucked out. The larger the numbers, the more believable one's point can appear.

With that said, I'm also not too happy with how things are going on right now in our health care system. There are so many things I find flawed in it, and you'd think such a 'modern' country like us could do better. I can't think of a solution I'd like at this point, but I certainly do hope someone will eventually in the (near) future.