Documentaries: Week 2

Make sure you have your say at urbanmoms.ca!  Have you seen Sicko yet?  Let us know what you thought in the comments section below & be sure to rate the number of stars you would give to Sicko.  Five Stars – Run, don’t walk, to the theatre.  Four Stars – Worth seeing.  Three Stars – Not bad.  Two Stars – Marginal.  One Star – Do not waste your time.

Sicko

So, I seem to be on a bit of a documentary kick of late.  Blame it on the writer’s strike (personally I like to blame everything, including the weather, on the writer’s strike), there just isn’t that much worthwhile on tv.  So when my copy of Sicko arrived from Netflix, I thought, "what the hey, let’s make it 2 documentaries in a row.  People might actually think I’m a little cultured."  Sicko is a documentary about the health care system in the U.S.  I was actually really looking forward to seeing this movie, as I think I have a fairly unique perspective, being a Canadian living in the U.S.  I also have never seen a Michael Moore film, so I figured this was a good one to start with.  I remember seeing Michael Moore on Oprah last summer talking about this film.  What struck me during the interview was that this film seemed to be less political than his past ventures, he was basically saying that everyone, on both sides of the aisle (as we say in the U.S.), had dropped the ball on health care.

Sicko is a series of stories chronicling average U.S. citizens’ experiences with the health care system in the U.S.  When I say health care system, I mean the for-profit system of health insurance companies.  This movie doesn’t even touch on the almost 50 million Americans who do not have health insurance.  Moore makes that painfully clear in the first 5 minutes.  Moore started all of this by sending out an open invitation to people to submit their health care horror stories.  Within a week he had over 25,000 e-mails in his inbox.  And he also had his next documentary.  It must have been a very difficult task to pick which stories would make it to the film.  I found it heartbreaking (I cried a ton) just to watch these people talk about how they thought that they were taken care of because they had insurance.  What they didn’t know was the lengths to which "insurance" companies would go to in justifying denying their claims.  Moore holds his most vehement criticism for the HMOs (insurance where you can only seek in-network treatment, or you pay totally out of pocket).  One woman told the story of her 2-year old daughter who had a fever so high that she had a seizure.  She called 911 & they transported her to the nearest hospital.  An out-of-network hospital.  The hospital contacted her insurance company & was told they could not provide any care there (or they wouldn’t be paid for it), & she should go to an in-network hospital.  The woman was told she should transport her child, by car, to the other hospital.  When she refused, she was removed from the hospital because she was considered a threat.  By the time the little girl was transported to the in-network hospital she was in cardiac arrest, & she was pronounced dead 30 minutes later.  I shook from the thought of it.  This little girl need not die.

Then Moore explores why we don’t have universal health care in the U.S., like every other developed nation in the world.  The dreaded & evil words "socialized medicine" come up.  He wonders why Americans are so afraid of those two words?  So he travels to Canada, the U.K., France & finally Cuba to see what life is like for not only the people who receive medical care under the evil "socialized medicine", but also the people who work within these systems.  Not surprisingly, everything seems to go smoothly & care is swift & thorough in every one of these countries.  Not only do they receive the care that most Americans receive, but many other fringe benefits like extended maternity leave, mother’s helpers, extended vacation time & cheap prescription drugs, all provided for by the government.  I cried as an American woman living in France talked about the guilt she felt over the things that were provided to her by the French government, that she knew that her parents, who had worked hard in the U.S. their entire lives, would never have.  The expression of "why" on her face was heartbreaking.

I have had a bit of experience myself with the health care system in the U.S.  10 years ago I was hospitalized for 8 days with an E. coli infection that spread to my blood, lungs & heart.  I received excellent care & when all was said & done owed a little over $1000 out of pocket.  Just this past fall my husband was hospitalized with what was believed to be a mysterious virus.  6 days in they told us it was Typhus (which we still don’t know how he contracted).  He came home 3 days later & has fully recovered from his illness.  In the following months I dealt with the insurance company, to ensure all our ducks were in a row.  When we finally received the statement from the insurance company for the hospital bill (not the dr’s, those were separate) I was shocked to see that 9 days in the hospital (& all of his medications/tests) came to $136,000.  Then I saw that the insurance comapany deemed these services to be worth a little over $18,000, our share of which was about $1,200.  For everything, including dr’s, we paid about $2,000 out-of pocket.  Not something we were counting on spending a decent chunk of money on, but manageable nonetheless.  The startling thing to me is the fact that I know nothing of how either the hospital or the insurance company determine their prices.  And that is the way they want it.  I am not allowed to know what I am paying for, just that I need to pay.  I was extremely pleased with his care, & considering some of the horror stories in Sicko, I feel very lucky to have come out of that situation with only a minor financial dent.  But I shouldn’t have to feel lucky.  I pay for this insurance so that I shouldn’t have to worry.  And that is precisely why the system in the U.S. is so broken, as Moore so rightly points out.  I know from experience that no system is perfect, but one that leaves so many out, & so many others wondering & worrying about getting sick, is fatally flawed & should be addressed.  It should not be acceptable that the #1 reason for bankrupcy & homelessness in the U.S. is medical debt.  It should be embarassing that the U.S. has higher infant mortality rate & lower life expectancy than any other developed nation on earth.

My overwhelming thought about this movie is that every American should see it.  Heck, anyone of any nationality should see it.  Moore is a master at using humour even when dealing with uncomfortable subjects.  He is also an amazing interviewer & plays the part of the "average guy" so well, all the way down to his ever-changing baseball caps.  He managed to make a movie that chronicles the issues at hand without delving too much into the political side, & places the impetus on the citizens to force the change.  Honestly, I think the movie is brilliant.  It made me want to get out & do something about it.  You can too.  Check out Michael Moore’s website to see what you can do to help.  If you haven’t already seen this movie, rent it as soon as you can.