I get me brain medicine from the National 'Ealth!

bethje and I went to the movies to see Sicko yesterday. There was only one other person in the theater, which seems to be typical of matinees. Anyway, as with the other Michael Moore films I've seen, this was primarily anecdotal, providing a sympathetic look at people suffering under the current policies, but not necessarily the best place to turn for the Cold, Hard Facts. It was definitely moving, though. It's kind of weird that the commercials I've seen for the film seemed to be along the lines of "Moore's funniest film yet!", when I think it had less levity than his previous efforts. There was humor, sure, but it was mostly of the sardonic variety. As for the points made, most of them early in the film weren't particularly novel (greedy executives in the health, insurance, and pharmaceutical organizations are paying off even greedier politicians to maintain the for-profit system), but there was some interesting stuff that I hadn't heard about before, like the taped conversation with Nixon, and the fact that Hillary Clinton now takes a lot of money from the health care industry. I also thought the British guy that Moore talked to about the origins of the National Health Service made a point I hadn't really considered before, about how keeping a certain segment of the population in constant debt can serve to demoralize them, and keep them from fully participating in the democratic process. The point was reinforced when one of the Americans living in France (I think that was who said it, anyway) claimed that the French government fears its citizens, while American citizens fear their government. Whether or not this demoralization is intentional, I think there's definitely something in that.

I remember the last time I made a post to the effect of "Hey, what's wrong with socialized health care?", the main argument against it seemed to be that you'd have to wait a long time to receive treatment (especially in more serious cases). Moore did address this in his film, although the anecdotal nature of his movies (which, as you might remember, I mentioned in the last paragraph) meant that it wasn't exactly thoroughly debunked. That said, I'm not sure the people who talk about people in socialized countries having to wait three years for a heart transplant are basing this on a random sample, either. So I'm not totally sure what to think of that objection, but it definitely holds a lot more water than what the right-wing propaganda machine has been insisting on recently--that socialized health care would create bureaucracies. But, uh, isn't the health insurance industry a big, wasteful, faceless bureaucracy in and of itself? I know Bill Maher once said something about (and I'm paraphrasing quite liberally here) how the government can (and does) screw plenty of things up, but privatization is much worse. I think I would have to agree with this.

And to close the post on a different note entirely, one of the previews before Sicko was for some crappy-looking romantic movie that I can't remember the name of (and don't particularly want to, either) was playing a New Pornographers song. Why must Hollywood ruin everything I enjoy? :P