The obligatory “SiCKO” review at Pandagon

The obligatory “SiCKO” review at Pandagon

I watched Sicko and got what I expected. Though I think Moore has, in this movie, finally hit on something that really strikes a chord - not all of us has guns, but who doesn’t weep over random medical bills that eat up the rent money? Because something as stupid-simple as a bad reaction to a vaccination or a bladder infection can chew up half a paycheck, if you’re not carrying enough insurance. And it’s getting harder and harder to do that.

I linked to a thread at Pandagon, not because of the post itself but because of the pyrotechnics in the comments - libertarians (self professed, anyway; like some conservatives, they seem conveniently blind to the real-life consequences of their theoretical ideal world in action) and liberals and those of unknown political leaning, duking it out with each other, and the odd Canadian or citizen of some other country putting in their two cents worth.

To me the one comment that mentions unhitching employment from healthcare hits a really big nail on the head. How many people are trapped in an endless cycle of “I want to work but I can’t get healthy enough?” I knew a nice lady of about 50 who looked older, who was flat broke; she was from Mexico, but a US citizen. Her husband had been violent and she divorced but it left her penniless. She worked for a while and was quite proud of it, but at some point diabetes and asthma came to visit and never left. When I met her she was living with a friend, getting a bit of help from the local gov’ment but not enough to do more than contribute to rent and buy groceries at the dollar store. She had applied for SSI to get MediCal and been turned down. They told her she could work. What job could she do, with failing eyesight, swollen legs, and difficulty breathing when the temps climbed? Her hands didn’t quite work right so she couldn’t type. She wasn’t the most brilliant or skilled, but you know, if she’d had access to decent treatment, she probably could have done something with the rest of her life, and she was more than willing to do that.

How many workers would there be in this country, starting businesses or taking jobs that are tough to fill consistently, if they had decent healthcare? Who knows?

There are other points made in the movie and the Pandagon thread, but having worked with folks of little or no means, I have to wonder what they would be doing with proper care. Schizophrenics on medications can function. Diabetics and people with conditions that could be resolved (or mostly so) with proper medication/treatment could function well enough to take jobs. The system we have does a poor job at getting these folks well - and it has no reason to really help them, either, as it relies on trapping these poor people to perpetuate itself. Well people would have jobs and private insurance. Then again, a major health crisis would end with unemployment and re-entry into the system, so….

I’m still pondering it all, with no real concrete opinion, and I wonder if Sicko will trigger some grassroots reaction, but I know the power of a very large system to perpetuate itself in homeostasis. So. We’ll see.