Nothing better symbolizes the corruption of the debate about healthcare reform than the rhetoric about "government-run" healthcare. Or, for that matter, the related argument that we need a "uniquely American" solution which precludes a public system like Medicare for all.
Two reports that notably received scant coverage from either the media or even those advocating the public plan "option" in Congress, reveal the seldom told truth.
Medicare is a "uniquely American" solution, and it works.
With Torture Like this, who needs Healthcare
by Katie Halper
When I read that a Pentagon spokesman didn't want to release Guantanamo Bay inmates without getting "credible assurances that they will be treated humanely" I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Then I thought about SICKO. I love Michael Moore. And I loved SICKO. Like no other mainstream film, it exposes the sick state of American medicine, diseased and deformed beyond recognition by the invasion of corporate parasites. A man with cancer dies because his insurance company denies him the conventional therapy of bone marrow transplants, which it deems experimental; a mother loses her infant febrile daughter when their HMO insists she be taken to a distant ER for treatment. 9/11 rescue workers cannot afford medicines and treatments to alleviate debilitating conditions resulting from ground-zero. Moore shows us universal health care in Britain, France, and Canada. I'm touched, outraged--and grateful to Moore for rallying the troops to march for universal healthcare for all, here in the wealthiest nation on earth.
As usual, Moore's new film has provoked criticism, accusations of lies or at least omitting and distorting the facts. So he doesn't show us the lines that our northern neighbors must sometimes wait on but he gives us the big picture of universal healthcare. So he romanticizes the European welfare state, overlooks the absence of British dental care, but it allows him to show us the ultra greed and ruthlessness of our flawed system. I'm used to defending Michael Moore against criticisms. He is not dishonest. He does not lie. Sometimes he omits. But just to make the bigger point to an ADD American public used to sound bites and MTV montages. And besides the overall message is a truthful one. These systems are not perfect, but they are still much better than our own healthcare system.
So it's really surprising that out of all these critical reviews, I couldn't find one that addressed the biggest and most problematic omission. Through his representation of Guantanamo Bay, Moore does not lie, he lets liars lie, and asks us to accept their word as truth. GTMO, Moore says, is the "one place on American soil that had free universal healthcare." A montage of politicians including Rumsfeld and Frist testify to the high-level health care, that high-level terrorists receive at GITMO. And thus with the rescue workers in tow, Moore sails to Guantamano, to get the quality government healthcare denied them and bestowed on "evil-doers."
Michael Moore was on CNN arguing with Dr. Sanjay Gupta about Sicko, claiming that Americans shouldn't be hurried along the path of bankruptcy and death because of a horrible health care system. Gupta argued that in Canada and England, people have to wait in line to die.
Michael Moore was on CNN arguing with Dr. Sanjay Gupta about Sicko, claiming that Americans shouldn't be hurried along the path of bankruptcy and death because of a horrible health care system. Gupta argued that in Canada and England, people have to wait in line to die.
This past 4th of July, Boing Boing posted a patriotic report on how some movie-goers in Dallas turned their reel passion into real civic engagement after a screening of Sicko:
When the credits rolled the audience filed out and into the bathrooms. At the urinals, my redneck friend couldn't stop talking about the film, and I kept listening. He struck up a conversation with a random black man in his 40s standing next to him, and soon everyone was peeing and talking about just how fucked everything is. I kept my distance, as we all finished and exited at the same time. Outside the restroom doors… the theater was in chaos. The entire Sicko audience had somehow formed an impromptu town hall meeting in front of the ladies room. I've never seen anything like it.
Don't get us wrong, we're always happy when progressive culture becomes a springboard for active citizenship - but people don't have to rely on impromptu meetings in the WC to host their conversations. For those who prefer the barroom to the bathroom, there's Drinking Liberally, over 45 chapters of which led group outings to see Michael Moore's film its opening week, almost always taking a next step -- sometimes partnering with other organizations, sometimes encouraging local activism and always making something more out of a night at the movies.
Rochester Drinking Liberally attended a panel by the Interfaith Health Care Coalition and Progressives in Action together after their screening. The Denver chapter hosted a guest speaker from Health Care for All Colorado. From Las Vegas, Nevada to Rock Hill, South Carolina to State College, Pennsylvania, people not only shared the movie, but shared their own experiences as well as ideas to take action.
And, inspired by Sicko, Des Moines DL held "Caucus and Coronas" -- an event for those who wanted to learn more about our health crisis...but not necessarily in the healthiest environment. With cheap beers in hand, this 8-group coalition had a serious conversation on making universal health care an issue in the 08 cycle.
There's certainly a lot to talk about when it comes to America's health care crisis - and some pints and pizza has been helping move the conversation along. Not everyone will find a rabble-rouser waiting at the next urinal.
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