Sicko

I happened to score 2 free passes for Michael Moore's new movie, Sicko. I highly recommend it. It starts off a bit slow, but quickly gains speed and then is entertaining right until the end. The movie looks at US Health Insurance, the scare mongering about socialized health care and the health care systems in Canada, Britain, France and Cuba.

It becomes clear that for all their talk of freedom, Americans are oppressed. Rather than being oppressed by their government, they are oppressed by the rich corporations they have to turn to for health coverage who then proceed to toy with their lives. Health insurance companies do not exist to provide healthcare, they exist to make a profit. And to make a profit, the worst thing in the world one can do is to actually provide the insurance coverage. So they find ways around it.

Of course, in the stories featured Moore contrasts the worst of the US with the best of other systems. In Canada, he interviews people in an emergency waiting room who wait about 20 to 45 minutes, which is a far cry from the 6 hours I waited in emergency after my car accident a few weeks ago. However, it makes me cautious about how private health care advocates do the opposite: contrasting the worst of Canada's woes with the best of the US stories. Every Canadian should see this movie to understand the perils of private health care.

Every Canadian should also see this movie for a reminder of how much better a society we could create if we elected people with the political will to make radical changes. Fear mongering about big government and high taxes prevents us from creating the benefits for Canadians that people from France take for granted. Some benefits featured in the movie:

• high quality child care for about $1 an hour*
• 5 weeks of holidays a year is standard for employees, even part time ones
• when a woman has a baby, she gets home care to help with baby, laundry, cooking, etc.

In other words, in France they expect their government to not be hands-off, but to create conditions that improve the quality of their lives.

The ending is priceless, as 9-11 volunteer rescue workers - whose health problems caused by their rescue efforts have been ignored by government - are taken by Moore to Cuba where they get medicines that were over $100 in the U.S. for about 5 cents and considerate, helpful medical treatment for free.

Yep, I'm glad I'm Canadian, but I wish Canada would become more like Europe. No chance under Harper, however.
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*Incidently, not covered by Moore in the movie is the fact that one of the reasons child care is such a great system in France is because the government sees it as an excellent employment program. Why, in North America, is it acceptable for the government to hire people to build roads or fight wars but not to take care of our precious children? We want to have low unemployment, parents are desperate for quality child care but yet we can't seem to put the 2 together. It seems to do with the perception that when the goverment spends money, it is a loss. In reality, when the government pays a child care worker, that worker pays taxes. That worker also spends money on goods and services, and the businesses receiving that money pay taxes, their workers pay taxes, the businesses when they get more business from people who would otherwise be unemployed can afford to hire more people, who then pay taxes, the ripple effect grows and grows. The government gets their money back and the economy overall gets a boost as more and more people have money to spend on goods and services.

So what do the Conservatives do about this well-known economic principle? They concentrate on tax breaks for the rich, who are more likely to save their money and invest it outside of Canada, where it doesn't help our economy at all. Think about the economic benefits of doing things the way France does. It's common sense.