Diagnosis: Sicko
I know embarrassingly little about the ins and outs of health policy in the United States, so seeing Sicko yesterday seemed like a fairly entertaining introduction to the topic before I actually have to get beyond liking healthcare and support an actual candidate with an actual policy. The movie was good - it does a very persuasive job of making everyone in the theater aware that many people get screwed over (and by "screwed over," I kind of mean "killed") by insurance companies, and then charges into the alternatives that they've adopted in Canada, England, France, and finally, Cuba. It careens from funny to tear-jerking with breakneck speed, but the thing that I noticed most (and maybe this has something to do with the emotional tug of the film) is that the most incisive points aren't made by Michael Moore in a voiceover like they were in Bowling for Columbine or Fahrenheit 911. He basically feigns incredulity and lets the people in the hospitals and cities that he visits do all of the legwork, and I thought that actually worked really, really well. Plenty of people hate Michael Moore, but it's hard to hate a single mother who lost a child, or 9/11 rescue workers, or a woman living in her daughter's basement because cancer drove her bankrupt. And for the most part, they're the ones who drive the film.
If anything, that leaves the film a little light on the policy parts of the solution, but it does a decent job of identifying a problem and demonstrating that it's not the only functional system that we necessarily have to be stuck with. Moore interviews this brilliantly charming guy in Britain who talks about how the National Health Service emerged from the devastation wrought by World War II, which sort of begs the question of how a similar system would be brought about in the United States. Obviously, there are different ways to do it, but they were sort of elided by the film. (Which means I do actually have to learn about this, which was kind of a let-down.) I'm just finishing What Should the Left Propose, and Unger talks a lot about the role that crisis has historically played in our major policy changes in America. Even if Britain and France are ideal models, the film didn't really address what it would entail for us to get from here to there, especially without that crisis-induced solidarity to bind us together and spur us to change. Still, it does a very good job of demonstrating that many people don't like it here, and that there might not be so bad after all. And if the film succeeds at all, that should be a pretty great first step.
Then again, I don't actually know that much about health policy. What did other people think of the movie? Are there workable solutions being floated around in policy circles, or is it still a matter of identifying the problem and building the support for a movement? And is Ratatouille going to single-handedly prevent the people from overthrowing corporate healthcare? Discuss.
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