Michael Moore’s provocative and controversial film, Sicko, takes on the disastrous US health care system. Moore looks at sick people in the US who are denied coverage despite having health insurance and compares it with countries that have universal and public health care coverage including Canada, France and the UK. He talks with former health insurance industry workers about how the system works to maximize profits by denying claims. He also describes how congress members are bought off for their silence. Moore also uses his typical, confrontational filmmaking style – taking 9-11 first responders and other sick US citizens to Cuba to receive free health care. One of his final proposals is that the US should change and bring in universal health care.
Moore has created a website to support facts that he sites in the movie, in response to numerous critics. [http://sickothemovie.com/checkup/]. As an example, the movie claims that “Canadian "wait times" are not nearly as long as some try to allege.” Moore’s site references the Canadian Institute for Health Information, [January 2007. http://www.cihi.ca/cihiweb/dispPage.jsp?cw_page=reports_wait_times_bulletins_e], which says that, “A recent study of emergency care in Ontario found that overall, "50% of patients were seen by a physician within 6 minutes and 86% were seen within 30 minutes of arriving at the [Emergency Department].50% of patients who were seen most quickly waited an hour or less; while 1 in 10 waited three hours or more.” This is important to Moore’s thesis because many critics tend to attack any kind of government run health care system and cite Canada as an example of bad care. Moore gives evidence that this is not the case and Canada actually gives good care.
A central point of the movie is Moore’s claim that “The government initially refused to pay for the health care of 9/11 volunteers, because they were not on the government payroll. It remains difficult for the volunteers to access the $50 million fund that has been appropriated for their care.” In response, Moore’s website refers us to Robert E. Robertson’s statement to the US Government Accountability Office. The US “provided a total of $175 million for workers compensation programs - $125 million to NYS Workers Compensation Review Board, and an additional $50 million to reimburse the NYS Uninsured Employers Fund, including for benefits paid to volunteers. However, there have been major delays in getting money to volunteers.” This was central to Moore’s aregument because it’s playing on people’s sympathy that even the heroes that stepped in at a time of great crisis can’t get the right health care that they need.
Moore’s film was challenged by the media and politicians. For example, Dr. Sanjay Gupta of CNN said that not all of Moore’s arguments are correct. [http://newsbusters.org/node/13866] This was picked up by websites who wanted to attack Moore’s thesis. Gupta noted that Cuba is ranked below the US in overall health care as one false claim in the movie. These people would like to discredit Moore on small points to undermine his larger thesis, which I believe is correct, that the US healthcare system is flawed and needs fixing.
As a result of this controversy, I have sought to check one piece of evidence that Moore cites. Moore’s website, http://sickothemovie.com/checkup/, gives evidence that insurance companies were willing to spend millions to block Hilary Clinton’s health care reform proposals in the 90’s. I found two independent sources that back this up.
· "In 1993-94, the Health Insurance Association of America, a trade group, spent about $15 million on advertising to defeat Clinton's proposed overhaul of the nation's health care system." John MacDonald, "Proponents, Opponents Join Battle Over Drug Price Limits," Hartford Courant, June 21, 2000.
· Harvard professor, Theta Skocpol, cites the Center for Public Integrity in saying 100 million dollars were spent to bring down Hilary Clinton’s health care plan. “Well-endowed and vitally threatened groups (such as the Health Insurance Association of America [HIAA], the association of smaller insurers that the Clinton plan might have put out of business) also could fund public relations campaigns designed to influence public opinion against the Clinton overhaul. In the end, according to a study by the Center for Public Integrity, health care reform would become “the most heavily lobbied legislative initiative in recent US. history.” During 1993 and 1994 “hundreds of special interests cumulatively . . . [spent] in excess of $100 million to influence the outcome of this public policy issue.” [T Skocpol. The rise and resounding fall of the Clinton plan. Health Affairs, 14 no. 1 (1995); 66-85]
Moore claims there are four times as many health care lobbyists as there are members of Congress. According to the Center for Responsive Politics (www.opensecrets.org),“in 2005 there were 2,084 health care lobbyists registered with the federal government. With 535 members of Congress, that's 3.895 lobbyists per member.” This is independent support for his claim.
As I watched the movie, Sicko, some of the more important parts to me were the scene where Moore went to other countries see how much better their health care was in comparison to ours. I watched this movie with my whole family during the break and every time Moore went to a different country, we all made comments like, “Ok, pack your things. We are moving there.” This showed that because health care is so good in other places, we wanted to move there and out of this country. My older cousin is a 29 year old single mom of two. She kept staring in awe at the things Moore said because she has to pay medical bills for her 5 year old son with asthma. She kept saying how grateful she was that her epileptic daughter of 11 is covered by Medicaid, so all of her bills are covered. Otherwise she would have to pay a whole lot more than she could afford.
Throughout the movie, the main feeling I felt was shock. I was in awe that our insurance companies could be so dense and actually keep people from surviving at certain points. One part that made me laugh at the insanity was the part where a woman was in a car accident and was driven to the hospital in an ambulance. Later, she got a bill for the ambulance saying that she needed to pay for it because she didn’t pre-approve it. My question is, ‘At what point was she supposed to pre-approve an ambulance after a car accident that rendered her unconscious?’ Another part that was less funny and way more shocking was the scene where a hospital in LA left a disoriented woman on the street because she couldn’t pay. She didn’t know where she was or how she got there and they didn’t care. This came as a surprising to me, that hospitals and insurance companies can be so hell-bent on making money that they don’t even care long enough to get a patient to safety.
My perspective on the dominant social practices has changed because of this movie. I am now more aware of how poorly the people in this country are treated due to the money-driven insurance companies.
No comments:
Post a Comment