Fast forward 14 years and Hilary Clinton is now a favorite of health care and insurance lobbyists, recipient of more of their campaign money than any other candidate. But so also are Democratic candidates Barack Obama and John Edwards, both of whom predictably propose health care reforms that keep insurers in the medical profit loop. As for the Republican candidates, well, they're all insured, so what do they care about reform?
Some critics of SiCKO complain that Moore doesn't allow the health insurers to defend themselves on-screen. Nor does Moore address the complexities or problems of national health care in other countries. True, but so what? As Moore notes, Americans are already exposed constantly to the health industry's point of view, thanks to multi-million dollar public relations campaigns. As for national health care in Canada, France, England, and Cuba, Moore seems justifiably more concerned with simply demonstrating the basic viability of national health care. In this two-hour movie, SiCKO shows Americans that free, guaranteed health care paid for by the government is not only possible but basically works. When has a mass American audience ever been exposed to that idea before?
Of course, with a message like this, expect a backlash. Take "hip" MTV correspondent Kurt Loder. He calls Moore a "socialist con man" for touting single-payer health care, informing us that the French system Moore praises is troubled with a $2.7 billion deficit. Ironically, that's about how much the Bush Administration spends every 9 days on military action in Iraq. But don't hold your breath for Loder (he called Moore's 2003 Oscar antiwar acceptance a "witless flip-out") or other conservative opponents of national health care to apply the same fiscal criteria to brand the Iraq war as unworkable.
Apparently it's sufficient for the Rolling Stone contributing editor to assume France's deficit just has to be the result of the inherent boogey of government social programs, eliminating any need to actually analyze the contradictions of French society. Some French unions point out that lower wages, unemployment, and recent large tax breaks to business have depleted public contributions to the social security system that manages the health services. The French government itself cites longer life expectancies, improved (and more expensive) medical care, and increased pharmaceutical costs for contributing to the deficit.
No doubt socialized health care in France, England, and Canada faces political challenges from the right. New French President Nicolas Sarkozy has declared his intent to reduce social spending, touting the prevailing corporate wisdom that for France to remain "competitive" in a global economy, the public must accept lower living standards. But whether France will embrace the downward spiral of the world's middle class, sacrificing a 35-hour workweek for the 48-hour workweek of Indians, or 16 weeks paid maternity leave for the 12 weeks unpaid leave of the United States, is a political matter to be determined by the French people.
More SiCKO backlash comes from writer Gen LaGreca, whose viewpoint essay for the Bloomington, Illinois Pantagraph (July 1, 2007) expresses incredulity that Moore thinks people have actually a "right" to health care "simply because they need it." LaGreca compares a national health care system to the government dispensing Belgian chocolates and filet mignon to the public under a mythical state "Foodcare" program. If the health care system has deteriorated, she says, it's because of the "despotism" of "crippling regulation." For this libertarian writer it seems that the revolt against tyranny begins with the rallying cry: No One Has the Right to Health Care! It's apparently enough in some circles now to just club the poor, huddled masses to death with your barbarian ideology.
SiCKO is a humanitarian antidote to such wretched thinking. But excluding the "free-market" ideology freaks, the SiCKO backlash is mostly rather tepid. Perhaps that's because when it comes to affordable health care, even many conservatives can't help but recognize that the system is in trouble. SiCKO is also an antidote to all the policy experts whose "expert opinion" always seems to come down on the side of suggesting solutions-any solution, but preferably complicated solutions-as long as it prevents the idea of single-payer, national health care from ever being taken seriously.
Sometimes this game of political obfuscation involves catchy soundbites. Take Michael F. Cannon, director of health policy studies for the libertarian CATO Institute, who in 2004 told Fox News host Bill O'Reilly: "The problem is not that we have 43 or 45 million Americans without health insurance. The problem is that we have 280 million Americans without health savings accounts."
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
