Letters to the Editor
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What if they can't call him "fat" anymore
also consider expresses concern for Michael Moore: "One could argue that being insured itself permits people like Michael Moore to routinely disregard health advice and eat too much and not exercise regularly. For when he becomes ill (and he will - the mortality rate for the human organism is 100%) ..."
NPR interviewed Mr. Moore this week, and he noted that, as a result of making "Sicko" and seeing how badly the medical-industrial complex handles even patients who are insured, he's begun eating more fruits and vegetables, cutting back on the fast food, talking long walks, and has already lost 30 pounds.
If this continues, it will eliminate the only factual criticism that the mainstream commentators have against him.
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Sicko
Like all of Moore's films, this one is flawed, but like all of his films, this one bears a powerful message. In fact, this one reaches further into the heart of the problem in this country. We can't blame this one on Bush, although he certainly is not interested in correcting the system. This condition -- big corporations profiting from illness and depriving those most in need of proper care-- has been with us for some time, long before even Nixon.
Go back to the time of J.P. Morgan to find evidence of the same system in its more embryonic stage. The only real difference between then and now is the Great-Society age Medicare and Medicade which, while not perfect, helps some fill the gaps for many needy patients, even while denied care by physicians unwilling to participate in either of those programs.
So we will take Moore's bad with his good. He may have a monumental ego, and he sometimes is a bit loose with facts, but the message is always clear. Be it availability of guns in "Bowling for Columbine," the mishandling of a disastrous war in "Farenheit 911," or the health care system in this one, there is no mistaking Moore's message.
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Thanks JM Walker
Your attempt to provide "clarity" is appreciated though it doesn't change the fact that Peter's original point, and your subsequent supporting windbaggery, is nonsense. People here are not saying that criticizing Moore means, as Peter stated, you are on the Right. That's simply a lie and a very bush tactic, but, you're welcome to it.
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re: Free Health Care?
Originally from Canada and now living in the U.S., it is important to point out that the (universal) health care there and elsewhere is not free. It is paid from our income taxes. Here, in the U.S., about 20% to 25% of my income goes to the federal government (no state income tax where I live). For the same revenue in Canada, close to 50% of my income would go to both federal and provincial governments (I doubt very much that the average American would be willing to pay such income tax rate to get “free” health care, since many already hate to pay income taxes at the current taxing rate); a large portion of that amount goes to “pay” for the universal health care system. The principal issue is not that it is free or not, but the extent of the coverage and one of fairness (and one related to the costs of running the system). There, everyone is covered but pays the costs via income tax, but here only people who can afford insurance get some kind of a health care coverage. There are many other issues with both systems I could discuss, but I will not get into here. In the end, I agree that, as a metter of fairness and as a society, everyone should be covered with some kind of plan.
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Thanks JM
The "Bush Tactics" were in ample use when Zacharek panned "F9/11." They're in use when people claim that Moore is being unfairly dissected because he's leftist, or asking why the critic doesn't spend as much time on Sean Hannity. KStone's claim that people who go after Moore aren't accused of being on the right is pure, unadultered, 100%, grade-A, knock a dog off a gut wagon, stink to high heaven bullshit.
Clear enough for ya, pal?
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Reasons we aren't socialized yet
America has a quasi private system of care. There are several reasons for this. One is weird paranoia about anything "socialized." Well, guess what our medical care delivery is already largely socialized. We socialized if for old people and they use quite a lot of medical care due largely to the fact that they are old and near death and dying costs a lot in this country.
Another reason is that insured individuals have a perverse pride in the fact that they are insured. They don't want to get in the queue with the unwashed hordes of uninsured. Ofcourse insured people often get their comeuppance when they lose their insurance or when it doesn't cover what they need or when they go to the hospital and realize that people mostly get acute care regardless of whether they will ever pay the bill, etc.
Compared to pretty much everyone else in the world and in history we Americans still do ok on average. We live a long time and we make and spend a lot of money in the process. Nationalizing Healthcare would probably not raise our averages too much, though it could even out some disparate outcomes for people. Rich and poor would have slighlty more similar outcomes in a wealth-redistributive socialized system. Individuals wouldn't get wiped out, we would all just lose a few bucks to taxes, etc.
Please let us abandon the confusion that economic fairness and equality of outcomes is "what we all deserve as Americans." Americans have never been especially concerned with fairness and equality of outcomes. In fact we are a people with a freakish willingness to accept the opposite. That may be the first thing we need to change before changing our healthcare system.
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Doctors are bloodsuckers
Figuring out how to make our shitty "medical" care system into a socialized medical system of course would be hard and challenging. No 'system" is perfect and not everyone can be happy. The point is we need to do something and do it now because what we have is complete garbage. If we took the big profits out of making or keeping people well that would be a good start. Fuck doctors making giant profits, they never know what's wrong with you anyway. They prefer to run tests that amount to torture and in the end they say well, we don't know it could be this or it could be that. They love to call what they don't understand or can't explain "syndromes" because that sounds good (and finite). Too bad he couldn't take on the pharmacuticals too, they suck the life out of this country while they get everyone hooked on their drugs.
As for Moore's film style, yes, he gets preachy and cartoonish a lot but look at his audience. Americans are pretty stupid. Just look at what movies and TV shows are popular these daze. I literally relch each time my family turns on the tube and I look at the lineup.