Sicko

Last night I managed to see Sicko, Michael Moore's new documentary about the state of the healthcare system in America. Good, strong stuff. I definitely urge everyone to see it. About a quarter of the movie discusses Canada's healthcare system, and the whole theatre broke into applause when Tommy Douglas' name came up. And who said we aren't patriotic!

There will be critics of course, and some of this criticism will be justified. Moore's take on Canadian healthcare is highly romanticized and we Canadians will recognize that immediately (he defends his treatment here). And knowing this does make us a little wary of how he portrays other healthcare systems around the world. I'm sure his critics will nitpick at every single detail of this film, trying to destroy his argument by saying how he misrepresented laundry or something equally as trivial (to be honest, though, moorewatch.com is a fabulous site critical of Moore, although like most right-wingers, they tend to respond to arguments by arguing a minor point in the original argument). But seriously: if you take anything at face value these days, even movies that represent your own opinions, then you're not doing anyone any good.

The strength of the film (in my opinion) is not in the little details, but the big picture. Moore successfully shows that the reasons American politicians are against universal healthcare are unfounded and based mostly on a hangover effect of Cold War paranoia. And he shows how the business plans of HMOs and pharmacutical companies are counterproductive. And so what if a Canadian he interviewed said she only had to wait 20 minutes to see a doctor (a claim we would all scoff at) or that in reality you have to wait months to get a transplant. Even if we compared out two systems and found them with equal pros and cons in every way, the point is this: we get it for next to free, while it costs Americans thousands of dollars.

Fortunately this is a topic that you can research without being an expert on Michael Moore. So I suggest, if you have real questions, that you get off the Moore websites and find other sources of information. Most, I'm sure, which is just as slanted one way or another.