Sicko

Health insurance is generally used to describe a form of insurance that pays for medical expenses. It is sometimes used more broadly to include insurance covering disability or long-term nursing or custodial care needs. Many people in America today can not afford health insurance because of what they look like, gender, social class. When and if you are insured, you’re guaranteed to be treated like royalty than those who don’t have health care. Michael Moore’s Sicko, is an excellent documentary that might piss you off but keep you laughing. It portrays those who have a health condition and can’t afford to get health insurance or even medication, even those who do have health insurance and still get turned away. It shows those who have fought long and hard for themselves as well as loved ones for health care and have been turned down numerous of times for the most obscured reasons.

A 22 year old woman got cervical cancer and she was denied health care because they thought she was too young. A guy sawed off two of his fingers and had to choose which one to get reattached because he couldn’t afford to get both of them sewed back on. Having to put a value on your body is ridiculous. Laura Kipnis (Male) Desire and (Female) Disgust: Reading Hustler discusses the topic of how pornography is a big deal and how male and female portray themselves in vulgar ways and does it tie in with their sexuality, social division of labor, sexual representation and class. Hustler is certainly the most reviled instance of mass circulation porn, and at the same time probably one of the most explicitly class-antagonistic mass circulation periodicals of any genre( pg 375). Andrea Dworkin (1987) writes: “Any violation of a woman’s body can become sex for men; this is the essential truth of pornography” (p.138).

Regardless of whatever you decide to do with your body, you have to remember you are setting an image of yourself. Taking care of your body and making sure that it is healthy is a must. If you are not able to take care of your body alone, there should be someone there to help you with your problem. This is a problem at the core of our health care woes. Moore finds scores of examples—people with tumors, heart problems, lost limbs and digits, you name it. And in each case the insurance company finds a way to deny paying for people's illness even though the people actually have health insurance. He also shows people who simply cannot get insurance because they have pre-existing conditions, are too heavy, are too light, and on and on (Michael Moore and the Beige Boomer, by Austan Goolsbee). I was shocked when they showed who got denied because they were young teenagers. America it’s self is worried about their image and more concerned about receiving money then giving it to those who need it more.

Ronald Reagan Speaks Against Socialized Medicine was brought up in Sicko. I got the opportunity to listen to his speech on youtube and it was quite interesting to hear that he had taken a vote for socialized medicine and it was turned down by the people. How he tried to provide social security, no matter how old and that you still got it if you were unemployed, died and even retirement. Surprisingly less Medicare was given when health insurance companies kept their money. If you’re a Canadian: Europe, France, London or even Cuba, your health insurance is free. In 1948 after the British WWII; they began to provide free medical care for everyone. One guy said, “ If you can find money to kill people, find money to help people”. Their kids college education is free, able to hire someone from the government to do your laundry, cook meals and even take care of your children for free. If you’re sick you can call someone to come to your house for a check-up for free. Even if a woman is in labor, the birth of her child is for free. A guy was playing golf and his tendon in his arm snapped and his bicep ended in his chest; his medical bill was free. Unlike the guy from America who sawed of his fingers, the same thing happened to a Canadian and he didn’t have to choose which finger to get attached, He got sewed up and didn’t have to pay a penny. FREE FREE FREE!.

I give Michael Moore a lot of credit of putting this documentary together because it could start a lot of controversy with the government and between the American’s and Canadians. You never know, if the government continues to do people wrong, everyone is going to end up living in France or becoming a UK citizen.