Sicko or Psycho?

Well, I did it.  It was a Friday night and I was feeling a little restless. I was in the mood to watch a movie, so I started channel surfing catching bits and pieces of "You've got mail", "Frankie and Johnny", "Dirty Dancing" … you see where this is going.  With nothing of interest on the tube and echoes of "Nobody puts Baby in a corner" ringing in my ear, I needed an escape.

I checked to see what movies were playing in the theaters (at this point it was coming upon 9:30 pm), and I saw that there was a 10:15 showing of Michael Moore's new "movie", Sicko.  Now, I can't claim to be a MM fan nor can I say that I have ever seen one of his previous films, but I knew he was controversial, the movie was about healthcare, and thought I could write off the $9 ticket, the $5.50 soda and $6.00 popcorn as business expenses (thanks Ralph).

I get to the cinema and thought I would find an empty theater.  I mean, who goes to a documentary at 10:15 on a Friday night? Well, after scanning the large audience I realized they came for one of two reasons. They either lacked an appreciation of what a fun Friday night is really about, or this movie was about a topic that many people care about. In case you are wondering, I fall into the latter classification .............

I felt like I was either on a college campus filled with fervent youth wanting to save the world or I was in Here I am, the lonely Republican in a crowd of tree huggers.  Fearing for the safety of my right wing opinions, I slunk into my seat and wished for the coming attractions to start.  All I have ever heard about MM is that he is anti-establishment and a psycho out to take down our great country. "With that said, I was pleasantly surprised by the film.  Having been in this industry for 23 years, I am well aware of the inefficiencies, the scandals, the funding issues, etc.  I got into the healthcare industry because I knew there would be huge opportunities to contribute to making a difference.  While I felt varying levels accomplishment over my career, MM brought me back to earth. The fact is, the healthcare industry is a mess, and Mr. Moore is very adept at pointing out the flaws.

According to the WHO, the US health system spends a higher portion of its gross domestic product than any other country but ranks 37 out of 191 countries in performance. "Sicko" took us through a brief history of the healthcare system via comedy, sadness and disbelief.  It talked about the compensation of the insurance company execs (Michael McAllister earned $3.33 million in compensation as CEO of Humana; John W Rowe earned $22.2 million in compensation as former CEO of Aetna; Bill McGuire had stock options worth $1.6 billion in 2005, as CEO of United Health Group). The film discussed the political machines and the lobbying and also went into great lengths to prove that socialized medicine works in places such as Canada, the UK and, Cuba . He doesn't try to show that their systems aren't flawless, but he does show that they aren't nearly as bad as billed.

The single most sobering moment for me was when insurance claim reviewers were interviewed and openly admitted that they were compensated by the number of claims they deny.  What????

I was recently at a social event with a former insurance company executive who had just retired.  When I asked him about this, he admitted to me that this was in fact the case and that it is much worse than that.  Short of outing his former employer, he just commented that it was good to be part of the establishment but wouldn't want to be on the other side of the fence if there were a health catastrophe in his family.

Is the movie controversial? Yes. Is it thought-provoking? Yes. Is it anti-government? No.

I encourage everyone to see this movie (wait for it to come out on DVD as a theater is an awful place to see a documentary, and you shouldn't have to worry about sitting next to a man with a with a Rumpelstiltskin beard or a woman with legs like mine.)

How do we change this system we have?  I have no clue.  It took us 231 years to get this way.  The solution will not come overnight. However, perhaps we should consider options.  As MM states in the movie: fire stations, police stations, the postal service, and schools in the US are mostly financed from property taxes, sales taxes, and income taxes collected … Why couldn't healthcare be?

Comments

[Pam Taylor]

I found Charlie's comments informative and interesting. I have not yet seen this movie.

[Susan]

I have not seen the movie yet but am aware of its general content. I believe most countries ranked above us in healthcare have a single payor system; governmental or socialized medicine. "Socialized medicine" has been used as a scare word for decades without the general public understanding what it means. Costs in the U.S. are so high because nobody has any bargaining power and its the only industry that I am aware of where the highest skilled workers are not employees.