Monday, July 02, 2007

Moorening Sickness

So, I recently saw the new Michael Moore documentary "Sicko." Actually, this post is coming a bit late as I saw the movie a week before it opened at a special screening in Santa Monica. (Let it never be said that I'm not at the cusp of the cultural zeitgeist.)

There is a very specific kind of audience that attends a screening of a Michael Moore film in Santa Monica a week before it opens. To put a finer point on it, it's a group that leans so far left it's a wonder the theater didn't tip over into the Pacific Ocean. Since I have a long standing love-hate relationship with Moore's films, it was interesting to watch the movie in the church of his most devout disciples.

There's a reason Moore has become such a polemic. His movies are provocative, entertaining and anything but objective. His greatest talent may be in his ability to take on Goliath-sized issues and dissect them down to a basic human perspective. It's one thing to know that the health care system in this country is broken; it's another thing to meet a man forced to decide which of the two fingers sliced off in an accident he could afford to reattach. Narrating with an air of wry weariness, Moore makes a pretty airtight case for a U.S. health system that has failed the people it's supposed to serve on every level. (With a few jabs at Republicans thrown in for good measure.)

But the biggest problem with Moore in general is just that you don't really believe him a lot of the time. It's never enough to allow the overwhelming evidence to speak for itself, he's compelled to make enormous factual leaps to hammer his point home. In "Sicko" he takes us on a whirlwind international adventure to show just how much the U.S. sucks in comparison to everywhere else.

To this end, he spends the second half of the film extolling the virtues of socialized medicine in Canada, the U.K., France, and Cuba--places where health care is universal and free to all. He makes his jolly way across several countries, interviewing helpful doctors and satisfied patients who gently mock the U.S.'s inferior system. Admittedly, it will make you green with envy to hear about free hospital stays, doctors who make house calls in the middle of the night and social services that provide live-in help to new mothers. One of the best ironic laughs comes when Moore--playing the skeptic--triumphantly uncovers a cashier window in a London hospital. Only it turns out this is not where patients come to pay for services rendered, but rather to be reimbursed for their travel expenses.

But here is where my Moore frustration really kicks in. A few years ago, I spent a semester studying journalism in London. While this hardly makes me an expert, I do distinctly recall media reports about long wait lists for procedures and patients left unattended for hours in hospital emergency rooms (sounds familiar). As we were walking out of the movie a couple of weeks ago, I overheard a woman telling her companion that her friend in Britain pays for private insurance because of frustration over the inefficacy of the government-run system.

This is not to say that I'm opposed to socialized health care or anything that would be an improvement over the managed-care system we've got now. But considering that I was confronted with evidence of an imperfect European system without having to leave the theater, it's surprising that Moore was unable to uncover even a shred of discontent on all of his travels.

I imagine it is because he is less interested in documenting than in sending out a call to action. And his main point, that we should free ourselves from the yoke of for-profit insurance agencies, is well-taken. One of the most interesting observations he makes in the film is that many aspects of American life are already socialized--education and public safety to name a couple.

Imagine living in a nation where privatized police and fire departments tried to increase their profits by expending as few resources as possible. What if when you called 9-1-1 to report a crime in progress, a board had to review your claim and determine whether it merited a response? It's a lunatic notion--but surely responsive and affordable health care is just as essential?

I guess the basis of my Moore-inspired schizophrenia is that I admire him for raising these points, but dislike the arrogance that leads him to discredit himself at every turn. He's a guy who views the world in black and white--an irritating habit that liberals are constantly berating Republicans for. In some ways, Moore really isn't that different from a neo-con, except that his evildoers happen to be Republicans.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Totally agree with your take on Moore. Haven't seen Sicko yet, but it rings true with Bowling for Columbine and Farenheit 9/11. You might enjoy this write up at Acephalous.

Kyle Garret said...

I really do believe Moore is one of the worst things to ever happen to liberals. He gives Republicans an easy out. They point to him and say "that's what a liberal is" and middle America nods in agreement and votes for Bush.

Those wily cats at Fox News have managed to really get to the heart of the matter on national healthcare, though. Since the men who planned the car bombings in the U.K. were doctors, Fox actually ran the headline "National Healthcare: Breeding Ground for Terror?"

Seriously. Evidently, doctors who aren't allowed to make millions of dollars turn to terrorism.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Meghan said...

Hey Neets--

I deleted your comment because I try to keep my last name out of the proceedings here. I realize that 90 percent of the people who visit this blog are people who know me. But just in case I ever want to work for the government or become a super spy or something.

Anonymous said...

Well look at that. Meghan [surname redacted] writes her first "political" post in quite some time, and all of a sudden, Big Brother starts deleting comments.

Kyle Garret said...

I just don't understand how a woman who uses "Moorening Sickness" as a headline refused to use "Megnetism" as the name of her blog.

Kelli said...

I completely agree with what you say about Moore. I haven't seen Sicko but after Bowling for Columbine and Farenheit 9/11 I left feeling exactly the way you describe.
Well said Meghan.

Kelli said...

P.S. I like the avatar/women writing in the corner that you added.