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Sicko: Biggest Targets Are Easiest to Hit
On June 29, Michael Moore will bow a new documentary called Sicko.
It's his usual style -- a collection of humorous, frustrating, aggravating and poignant anecdotes to underscore the flaws in the American health care system (or nonsystem, as others have complained). Many of the stories have been previously told in other media, some date back to the 1980s.
To be fair to countless other authors and health policy analysts, much has already been written about ineffective health care delivery in the United States. It is a complex patchwork quilt that includes commercial, private, governmental and other insurers: a quilt that has been become increasingly frayed. In a recent WebMD blog I reiterated the key message that permeates everybody's argument: How can one nation spend the most per capita on health care yet still have 45+ million Americans uninsured?
Policy experts (yawn!) have spent three decades warning society that the collapse of our health care system is imminent. What happened as a result? No significant change occurred, at least not in the eyes of health consumers.
Next the politicians took a swipe. Much of President Bill Clinton's first term in office was devoted to a systematic overhaul. The First Lady became Chief Reformer and party partisanship took over. These efforts were smothered by a well-placed advertising (misinformation) campaign that successfully alarmed senior citizens and the working middle class. What happened as a result? Congress retreated. Only the stupid parts of managed care survived, hospital companies consolidated, CEOs and inside traders became wealthier, and more Americans than ever were left out in the cold. President Bush hasn't had much more luck with change.
Michael Moore is a film writer and cinematographer. He does not claim to be a health policy analyst and he is not a politician (not yet). Those "resume deficiencies" may be his best qualifications to effect real change in American health care. Let me tell you why his voice may make a difference.
Joe and Suzy Sixpack are the reason.
Mr. and Mrs. Average American. The folks who reside in "flyover country." Change in this country does not occur at the national level (repeal of Prohibition, ending the Vietnam War, threatened impeachment of Richard Nixon) until America's middle class demands it. (Seen any $2 bills lately? The general public refused to adapt!) Until then the message is shaped and reshaped by powerbrokers and stakeholders then repeatedly served back to the American public. Nothing happens until Joe and Suzy can no longer tolerate the status quo.
But there's a big obstacle to change. So long as the Sixpack family enjoys good health and is not penalized by their health insurer they perceive no threat. To them the status quo is acceptable.
Like his earlier movies Michael Moore is using Sicko to rock the status quo.
Could we do better as a country to care for our fellow citizens? Is it acceptable that so many Americans are living on the edge - one hospitalization away from bankruptcy? Like all the erudite voices before him Michael Moore believes we can do better, much better. It only takes willpower. Moore seeks to catalyze that willpower where he can best find Joe and Suzy Sixpack - the local movie theater.
I say give the guy a chance. Aren't you willing to pay $10 to fix health care? In three years we may all be thanking him.
(Watch excerpt from "Sicko")
Related Topics:
Technorati Tags: health insurance, Michael Moore, Sicko, medicine, health and wellness
It's his usual style -- a collection of humorous, frustrating, aggravating and poignant anecdotes to underscore the flaws in the American health care system (or nonsystem, as others have complained). Many of the stories have been previously told in other media, some date back to the 1980s.
To be fair to countless other authors and health policy analysts, much has already been written about ineffective health care delivery in the United States. It is a complex patchwork quilt that includes commercial, private, governmental and other insurers: a quilt that has been become increasingly frayed. In a recent WebMD blog I reiterated the key message that permeates everybody's argument: How can one nation spend the most per capita on health care yet still have 45+ million Americans uninsured?
Policy experts (yawn!) have spent three decades warning society that the collapse of our health care system is imminent. What happened as a result? No significant change occurred, at least not in the eyes of health consumers.
Next the politicians took a swipe. Much of President Bill Clinton's first term in office was devoted to a systematic overhaul. The First Lady became Chief Reformer and party partisanship took over. These efforts were smothered by a well-placed advertising (misinformation) campaign that successfully alarmed senior citizens and the working middle class. What happened as a result? Congress retreated. Only the stupid parts of managed care survived, hospital companies consolidated, CEOs and inside traders became wealthier, and more Americans than ever were left out in the cold. President Bush hasn't had much more luck with change.
Michael Moore is a film writer and cinematographer. He does not claim to be a health policy analyst and he is not a politician (not yet). Those "resume deficiencies" may be his best qualifications to effect real change in American health care. Let me tell you why his voice may make a difference.
Joe and Suzy Sixpack are the reason.
Mr. and Mrs. Average American. The folks who reside in "flyover country." Change in this country does not occur at the national level (repeal of Prohibition, ending the Vietnam War, threatened impeachment of Richard Nixon) until America's middle class demands it. (Seen any $2 bills lately? The general public refused to adapt!) Until then the message is shaped and reshaped by powerbrokers and stakeholders then repeatedly served back to the American public. Nothing happens until Joe and Suzy can no longer tolerate the status quo.
But there's a big obstacle to change. So long as the Sixpack family enjoys good health and is not penalized by their health insurer they perceive no threat. To them the status quo is acceptable.
Like his earlier movies Michael Moore is using Sicko to rock the status quo.
Could we do better as a country to care for our fellow citizens? Is it acceptable that so many Americans are living on the edge - one hospitalization away from bankruptcy? Like all the erudite voices before him Michael Moore believes we can do better, much better. It only takes willpower. Moore seeks to catalyze that willpower where he can best find Joe and Suzy Sixpack - the local movie theater.
I say give the guy a chance. Aren't you willing to pay $10 to fix health care? In three years we may all be thanking him.
(Watch excerpt from "Sicko")
Related Topics:
Technorati Tags: health insurance, Michael Moore, Sicko, medicine, health and wellness
