Sicko

I've been following the hullabaloo about Michael Moore's newly-released documentary "Sicko." Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting called out The USA Today's so-called 'debate' about the film (http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3128) between its editors and Karen Ignagni, president and CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans. Good call considering the paper gets hundreds of thousands of advertising dollars from the private health care industry. And Ignagni, well, her title speaks for itself.

MSMBC commentator Arthur Caplan, Ph.D. was much more factual, enlightening and sincere in his opinion piece, "Nothing Funny About 'Sicko' state of health care. You can read it here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19461932/

I think the following paragraphs nailed it:

"Moore's critics would like you to believe "Sicko" is slicko. Those with vested interests in preserving the current status quo in health care have already activated their lobbyists, media flacks, think-tank mouthpieces and trade organizations to go after Moore and his movie. There are nearly $2 trillion worth of vested interests out there in insurance, managed care, hospitals, doctors, advertisers and salespeople looking to keep their share of the health care pot of gold."

"Why do we put up with a broken, bloated, bureaucratic and increasingly barbaric health system? Because your politicians are in the thrall of the people who profit from it. And just enough of us have access to a fairly decent level of care that the misery of the uninsured, underinsured and tapped out does not move us to care."

"If you think Moore is exaggerating the woes of the health care system and if you think — as his often bought and paid-for critics charge — that he is just a sloppy, overfed left-wing ideologue, then go down to your local hospital emergency room or nursing home and tell it to those waiting there for care and compassion. Except for luck and a few ticks of the clock, they might be you. If Moore’s call to action is not heeded, such a visit tells you all you need to know about what awaits you in terms of health care in America. Nothing funny at all about that."

Even if one makes a hundred grand per year and has top notch health coverage, he/she is just one major illness or injury away from losing everything. If health care remains a for-profit industry, then society will continue to get sicker and sicker. Don't be fooled or distracted by the life expectancy increases the medical establishment touts. While people may be living longer, what is their quality of life? So many of them are miserably wasting away in hospitals or long term care facilities. When they talk about quantity, don't forget about QUALITY. What kind of quality of life can one have if one is miserably ill and not getting quality care or any care at all?

"In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new guards for their future security — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. — The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world."

Anyone remember this? In reading it again I'm reminded of Howard Zinn's book "Declarations of Independence." As we become less and less comfortable, I think more of us will realize we're all on the same sinking ship.