"Sicko" and Day Two of the Love Meme
lamentables claims she constructs her f-list to find good reads, but I think it's actually a way for her to disseminate her terrific photographs and shamelessly fangirl Canada at the same time. The L-ster (part of the fun of this meme will be thinking up really lame nicknames for you all) is funny, sweet, discerning and she always has interesting photographs and discussions going on at her LJ. Every day she posts something new and unusual, and every day she shows me a new way to view the world. I love her to pieces and I envy her feet. So there.
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Sarah, scarfe and I went to see Michael Moore's new flick Sicko last night. It wasn't a particularly comprehensive or informative documentary (turns out Americans have shitty healthcare--who knew?) but it was certainly engrossing and made its simple point very well.
The personal stories of ill Americans who are left without coverage or medical care due to inflexible, profit-driven insurance companies were extraordinarily moving. If Moore's goal was to incite rage and disbelief in his audience towards an uncaring system he accomplished that mission very well. I'm not sure how productive that solution is, however, since I think it's likely to result in even more cynicism and apathy towards the deplorable state of the US healthcare system. Moore's call for his countrymen to start thinking of "we" instead of "me" seemed a bit contradictory, since that puts the burden of change on the individual (again, the "me") instead of the system (the collective end result of the "we"). A greater focus on the interplay between politics and HMO cash infusions would have offered a much more concrete solution than a perspective shift from individualism to collectivism, but I think Moore, like most liberal Americans, has probably lost a lot of faith in the American political system's ability to change. His shots at Hilary Clinton (deserved, but still wince-inducing) seemed to indicate as much, anyway.
From a Canadian perspective Sicko was a long horror show of "there but for the Grace of Tommy Douglas go we...". There's a long section in the film where Moore compares Canadian universal healthcare to the system in the United States and I could feel the audience around me begin to bristle at Moore's generalizations, just as I did when Moore crossed the border into Windsor to compare Canadian/American gun ownership and security concerns in Bowling for Columbine. (Plenty of Canadians lock their doors at night, FYI). He mades one too many sweeping statements about the status and standards of Canadian healthcare, but by the end his comparisons to the US system seemed to resonate with the people who sat in that darkened theater with me last night. Moore chose well in selecting his elderly Canadian relatives to interview for the film: there's a part where Moore's cameras follow them as they go to buy health insurance at Sears in preparation for a quick trip over the border into Michigan and I think every Canadian who’s visited the States has contemplated doing the same.
We Canucks know our system has problems (or, at least, we're told it does, over and over) but I think we're far more terrified by the notion of American-style HMOs and privatized insurance than the blind spots in our own system. Having had the benefits of universal coverage throughout my entire life I can't contemplate choosing which finger I'd like to keep because I can't afford the necessary surgery to reattach two, or watching my child die of a fever because the hospital I brought her to wasn't approved by my HMO. Conversely (at least according to the film) British and French viewers would probably be horrified to discover that Canadians don't have dental coverage, and that we now pay for all routine eye exams and most prescription costs. I suppose everything is based on a sliding scale of expectations. And the end result? Well, I feel awful for Americans, slightly reassured about my own country’s system, and I'm jealous of the French :-)
As bad as it sounds, the suffering Moore mined for his film gave me a plot bunny. In the grand tradition of stories like "Busted" (and "Tapestry" and “Finding the Words” and many, many others), the bunny is for a post-CotW h/c weepie in which Ray is diagnosed with a terminal illness (cancer? I'm almost tempted to go the HIV route but that might not be playing fair) and goes bankrupt over the associated treatment costs. He has to sell the GTO to pay the hospital bills and moves into his parent's trailer in Skokie. Vecchio and Stella return to Chicago and are horrified to find Ray so broken-down, sick and hopeless. They get in touch with Fraser, who returns and drags Ray up to Canada to nurse him back to health in the glory of socialized healthcare and warm Mountie love. Just thinking of the beginning and middle depresses the fuck out of me (I'm wary of my own powers for angst) but it could turn out.
So, anyone want to read a dS cancer/HIV epic thinly disguised as commentary about the disparity between the US/Canadian healthcare system?
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Sarah, scarfe and I went to see Michael Moore's new flick Sicko last night. It wasn't a particularly comprehensive or informative documentary (turns out Americans have shitty healthcare--who knew?) but it was certainly engrossing and made its simple point very well.
The personal stories of ill Americans who are left without coverage or medical care due to inflexible, profit-driven insurance companies were extraordinarily moving. If Moore's goal was to incite rage and disbelief in his audience towards an uncaring system he accomplished that mission very well. I'm not sure how productive that solution is, however, since I think it's likely to result in even more cynicism and apathy towards the deplorable state of the US healthcare system. Moore's call for his countrymen to start thinking of "we" instead of "me" seemed a bit contradictory, since that puts the burden of change on the individual (again, the "me") instead of the system (the collective end result of the "we"). A greater focus on the interplay between politics and HMO cash infusions would have offered a much more concrete solution than a perspective shift from individualism to collectivism, but I think Moore, like most liberal Americans, has probably lost a lot of faith in the American political system's ability to change. His shots at Hilary Clinton (deserved, but still wince-inducing) seemed to indicate as much, anyway.
From a Canadian perspective Sicko was a long horror show of "there but for the Grace of Tommy Douglas go we...". There's a long section in the film where Moore compares Canadian universal healthcare to the system in the United States and I could feel the audience around me begin to bristle at Moore's generalizations, just as I did when Moore crossed the border into Windsor to compare Canadian/American gun ownership and security concerns in Bowling for Columbine. (Plenty of Canadians lock their doors at night, FYI). He mades one too many sweeping statements about the status and standards of Canadian healthcare, but by the end his comparisons to the US system seemed to resonate with the people who sat in that darkened theater with me last night. Moore chose well in selecting his elderly Canadian relatives to interview for the film: there's a part where Moore's cameras follow them as they go to buy health insurance at Sears in preparation for a quick trip over the border into Michigan and I think every Canadian who’s visited the States has contemplated doing the same.
We Canucks know our system has problems (or, at least, we're told it does, over and over) but I think we're far more terrified by the notion of American-style HMOs and privatized insurance than the blind spots in our own system. Having had the benefits of universal coverage throughout my entire life I can't contemplate choosing which finger I'd like to keep because I can't afford the necessary surgery to reattach two, or watching my child die of a fever because the hospital I brought her to wasn't approved by my HMO. Conversely (at least according to the film) British and French viewers would probably be horrified to discover that Canadians don't have dental coverage, and that we now pay for all routine eye exams and most prescription costs. I suppose everything is based on a sliding scale of expectations. And the end result? Well, I feel awful for Americans, slightly reassured about my own country’s system, and I'm jealous of the French :-)
As bad as it sounds, the suffering Moore mined for his film gave me a plot bunny. In the grand tradition of stories like "Busted" (and "Tapestry" and “Finding the Words” and many, many others), the bunny is for a post-CotW h/c weepie in which Ray is diagnosed with a terminal illness (cancer? I'm almost tempted to go the HIV route but that might not be playing fair) and goes bankrupt over the associated treatment costs. He has to sell the GTO to pay the hospital bills and moves into his parent's trailer in Skokie. Vecchio and Stella return to Chicago and are horrified to find Ray so broken-down, sick and hopeless. They get in touch with Fraser, who returns and drags Ray up to Canada to nurse him back to health in the glory of socialized healthcare and warm Mountie love. Just thinking of the beginning and middle depresses the fuck out of me (I'm wary of my own powers for angst) but it could turn out.
So, anyone want to read a dS cancer/HIV epic thinly disguised as commentary about the disparity between the US/Canadian healthcare system?