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Is Michael Moore's latest "documentary" "Sicko" slanted? Is the pope Catholic? Is Paris Hilton stupid? We know the answers to these questions. Although not as incendiary as "Bowling for Columbine" or "Fahrenheit 9/11," "Sicko" does state its case for universal health care. Or some semblance of it that wouldn't upset conservatives. Moore indeed rails against health insurance companies and pharmaceutical firms, their top officials who actually make medical decisions rather than doctors, and their lobbyists and paid whores in their highest levels of government. There is the occasional dry Michael Moore wit present, but nothing over the top. But there's a larger agenda at stake in "Sicko." It's a mindset that has driven corporate America into a profit-led, me-only mentality with which the wealthiest can get away with murder - figuratively and somewhat literally speaking. What happened to that classic Christian philosophy of being my brother's keeper, of doing what it takes to ensure a loved one's health rather that worry endlessly about costs and paperwork. So eerie but not totally shocking is an audio tape of an Oval Office talk between then-President Nixon and Bob Ehrlictmann about instituting HMOs. Simply put, Kaiser Permanente had a private enterprise plan in place to make money off of being sick people and doing it in a way to either keep people ill or deny them insurance coverage. "Sounds like a good plan" Nixon mutters. It's not about helping the infirmed, it's just another way of making money off of them. And if the infirmed die...well, that's Darwinism for ya. The conservatives and unfeeling corporate cohorts aren't solely to blame here. After crashing and burning her attempt in implement national health care in the early '90s, Hillary Clinton became a big-time recipient of insurance and pharma funds during her senatorial (and no doubt presidential) campaign(s). Moore ultimately focuses on ordinary real people hit the hardest by the paradox. Elderly, twentysomethings, young famiies, older families. A man who accidentally cut off two fingertips had to decide on the "cheaper" finger to which to re-attach one tip (the ring finger). An elderly couple with various illnesses, burdened by debt, sell their home and move into their daughter's storage room. A widow who grives because the insurance firm refused to authorize proper treatment for her then-dying husband's disease. A young mother who saw her little girl die before her eyes after being given the literal run-around through 2 or 3 hospitals after the insurer denied treatment at the first hospital. What did the girl have that fateful night? A fever that suddenly turned into cardiac arrest. Moore then delves into countries that have government-run health care: Canada, France, Britain and, yes, the infamous stunt boat ride to Cuba. Guantanamo Bay to be exact, where Al Qaeda terrorists are given better free medical treatment than most of us. While in Cuba, Moore aids three former 9/11 volunteers who now suffer from respiratory ailments. Sure enough, the Cuban doctors give the stricken exactly what they need. Are these so-called "socialized medicine" systems without their faults? No, no such utopia exists. But as Che Guevara's daughter points out, nations not as rich as America - such as Cuba - do what they can to take care of their people. Or as a retired British parliamentarian puts it, "if we have enough money to kill people (through war), why don't we have enough money to save people?" Damn good question. Now if you'll excuse me I have to get a loan to pay for my latest prescription refill.
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