We live in a country where a rich man's dog receives better medical care than millions of our citizens.
"Sicko," Michael Moore's new documentary about the U.S. health care system, helps explain how we have reached such a shameful state and what we can do about it.
"Sicko" makes it clear that the problem with the U.S. health care system is not "inefficiency" but the corporations that profit from denying care to the sick and injured. It's not a "broken system" but an industry deliberately designed to make money by sucking in billions in premiums and then refusing to pay for medical care.
I saw "Sicko" with an audience that became visibly upset as Moore interviewed a hard-working husband and wife who lost their jobs because of illness and then lost everything they owned because of their medical expenses. Some people in the audience blurted out angry comments as they saw a man who lost two fingers in an accident forced to decide which one he could afford to have reattached.
When the movie showed a confused elderly woman, still in her hospital gown, thrown into the street because her hospital benefits were exhausted, a wave of shame swept over the audience.
The audience then sighed with envy as Moore interviewed people in Canada, England and France who not only receive excellent medical care under their national health insurance systems, but also live without the gripping fear that Americans feel as they think about their future.
"Sicko" is powerful because it's true. Moore's web site provides the source for every fact he cites.
The documentary also underscores the point that simply pushing the 47 million uninsured into the arms of the private health insurers will not solve the problem. We can't "reform" a vicious profit-driven system. It's a national disgrace that can end now if we demand universal health care and a single-payer system that takes the profit motive out of health care.
If more Americans go to the theaters to watch "Sicko," there will be more major political changes in this country long before the 2008 elections.
Greg Tarpinian is the Executive Director of Change to Win.
