I am pissed. Just totally pissed! I don't know how you can watch Michael Moore's new film and not be. More than Fahrenheit 9/11, more than Bowling with Columbine. Because there is no reason, not one legitimate reason, that we average Americans have to live lives of unnecessary life-shortening stress over healthcare and daycare and education. No reason we have to live in a society that puts profits over people. There's no reason that we couldn't be more human and humane. I feel cheated.
Firstly it ruined my 4th of July. If America was still a British colony we'd have national health care. Our forefathers sure didn't show much forethought.
Seriously, there's nothing in the film that I didn't already know, really. But faced with the reality of it on the screen, the utter ridiculousness that other countries do not put the profitablilty of corporations ahead of their humanity and doing right by the citizenry, and we soooooooo do, I feel really goddamn cheated.
Cheated out of every moment that I've had to sweat a medical bill or co-pay or fill out a questionnaire and show my insurance card. Cheated out of the humanity that was drained from me when I had to worry about money instead of the health of my loved ones.
And cheated out of doctors who care more about me and my loved ones' health rather than my credit rating. I know doctors that fight "socialized medicine" with every fiber of their being so they can have their McMansion, BMW and European vacations. Quite frankly I don't consider them doctors at all. I wouldn't let them treat me ever again.
From now on I won't vote for a candidate who doesn't advocate for universal single-payer health care and I won't let a doctor treat me who doesn't either.
I feel cheated out of the options that a more people first society with universal health care and generous public higher education would have given me to pursue my dreams. Like many people, I didn't expect to be where I am today. I swear to God five minutes ago I was young and had everything in front of me. But I'm not and I don't. I'm a legal assistant for a large firm which is fine. But there was a time when I wouldn't have traded anyone's past for my future.
But I fell in love and I got married and had kids and the pressure descended. I couldn't keep working loosely scheduled, low pressure, low pay jobs. I had to make a living, I had to get health insurance.
If I had been born in a country like France or Canada, maybe I would have been able to honor my dreams longer and not have to do hundreds of hours of overtime just to pay my bills and put my kids through college. I could have gone back to get that Masters degree that I always wanted but couldn't afford.
Much like the watering down of bankruptcy laws, how does this present system promote entrepreneurship and innovation? We're not as free, with this system, to take the chances that capitalism require .
In the film you see these American ex-pats living there who seem so care free, they feel almost guilty about how much they get from their adopted countries and how little their families and friends back in the states get. It's almost like survivor's guilt. They left behind the petty way we treat the big things and now thrive in a society that puts people first. The burden lifted from their shoulders is palpable.
Until I saw them I didn't really feel the burden on my shoulders. It's just the way it is. Everyone has it this way has to cope with it, don't they? Well, no, they don't. They have free high quality health care and day care and education. They get generous paid time off to recuperate from an illness or to have a baby, without having to fear losing their job. The stigma that we have in this country associated with unemployment, welfare, food stamps, to be "on the dole" doesn't exist. The government exists to serve the people, to make it easier for them to have a good life, pursue their dreams, start a business, start a family. To LIVE! To LIVE A GOOD LIFE! To have the leisure time to travel and learn a language and read books on a beach. I get 3 weeks of vacation and I'm lucky to have that. Can you imagine 2 months? I can. Wow. That's living.
There's no Goddamn reason why we can't have that in this incredibly rich country. No Goddamn reason we can't live better, hapier healthier lives with less stress.
I believe it was Anthony Benn, longtime Old Labour member of Parliament who summed it up in the film. He talked about how Brits after the war thought that if they could find the wherewithal to fight WWII, to spend so much to kill, they could find the money to heal. 60 years later, across an ocean we have to do the same. If we can spend half a trillion dollars a year on defense, we can find a fraction of that to make quality healthcare for all a priority.
The mechanism is there already, Medicare for all is the way to have single payer right here right now. We can do this. We don't need an Apollo project on this one. Don't need research or a new grid or any new technologies. All we need is the leadership to enact it and the HMOs and employer based health care fades away.
P.S. thanks to Michael Moore for he film and for coming by to talk it. EVERYONE GO SEE THE MOVIE!!