The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

It's not really a movie about the 50 million Americans who don't have health care, although they do get their camera time. Rather, it is about the average middle-class insured citizen who makes the mistake of thinking that they'll be taken care of when they get sick.

I am a big fan of Michael Moore. With me, he is simply preaching to the converted. The idea of a profit-driven health care system is an idea that is simply foreign to me and many other Canadians. The reason is simple: access and quality is not equal, and the poor don't get the help they need, period. But with Sicko, what is truly alarming is the type of care the insured are denied, and the applicants who have the money to get insurance but are turned away. What I thought was an already horrible system, Michael Moore demonstrates it is far worse than I ever imagined.

A woman who weighs 175 lbs is too fat to get coverage. A man who is over 6 feet tall and weighs 130 lbs is too thin to be accepted. Someone who had a yeast infection is denied coverage because they failed to disclose their "serious" medical condition.

An insured husband has three heart attacks in his life. To add to his bad luck, his wife gets struck by cancer. Each incident requires the payment of a deductible to get the necessary treatment that gets so huge they have no choice but to file for bankruptcy and move to a family's home for shelter. Both worked. Both paid their taxes. And both paid for their health insurance that turned on them when they had the gall to file a claim when they got sick.

There are many examples of travesties of the American health-care system in Sicko, and as I have told anyone who'd listen, this is one of the main reasons why I would never, ever live in the United States. I visited Las Vegas recently. I've also visited Washington, New York, Boston, Tampa, New Jersey and Cleveland amongst many other places. There are some nice neighborhoods, vibrant city life and friendly people to meet. But the government refuses to properly take care of it's people, and in turn the corporations that profit from their misery see no wrong in their actions and continue to exploit those who cannot defend themselves. I do not wish to live in a country that tolerates these injustices.

The UK, Canada, France and Cuba are featured prominently as models of health care the USA can learn from. There is no perfect system, and I can already remember the near 2 hour wait in the waiting room when I had kidney stones before someone helped me a few years ago. But at least I have no fear of dying when I head to the hospital, or that I'll never be able to own a home or buy a car because my medical bills have piled up so high. Some things are just common sense, and the message that everyone has the right to live the longest and healthiest life possible without having to pull out their chequebook is effectively conveyed in Sicko.

I can't wait to see what Moore does next.