The documentary Sicko provides us with an analysis of the United States healthcare system. The director of the film, Michael Moore, creates a series of comparisons and contrasts between both the U.S healthcare industry and that of other countries. The comparison allows us to see the differences between different societal, economical, and healthcare structures in these countries. A major themed outline throughout the movie is the U.S emphasis on efficiency and productivity. Resulting in the profit orientated system that we currently have in place. It suggests that the current U.S system mirrors that of which that is described by Karl Marx in his conflict theory, where the system is used to create inequality, broadening the gap between the rich and the poor. After reviewing and evaluating the current system, the conclusion is drawn that it is designed to be oppressive in nature.
The U.S healthcare system is being run as a business, rather than being aimed at being a public service. The entire concept behind this system is "How can we make the biggest profit?'' As is the case with most businesses in our society, essentially we work to figure out how to make more by doing less. This way of thinking however is vastly different from the other systems discussed in the film. The documentary compares our system with other systems that have a socialist foundation, such as Canada, the United Kingdom, and France. In these countries health care is free and drug costs are low. In the U.S., before receiving treatment, insurance information needs to be collected first to ensure payment. If your insurance denies coverage, or if there is a large co-pay at the end that someone is unable to afford, medical care is denied. However, in countries with socialized medicine, healthcare is never denied to someone who cannot afford it. As mentioned, most healthcare is free, paid for with taxes thus enabling access in times of emergency. This appears to be real insurance.
A major issue in the U.S is not only the denial of treatments for illnesses, rather our lack of preventive care. Most people do not go to the doctor unless they are sick and when they do they're given a myriad of high cost treatments and drugs rather than getting to the root of the problem. We treat the symptom but not the cause, and if you add the American way of productivity, which gives us the highest GDP in the country, but also results in the longest work hours and highest stress levels than any other country, you essentially have a recipe not only for poor health but for disaster. Due to the inequality between the rich and the poor in the country we often forget the importance of things outside of monetary gain. Were constantly working trying to keep ourselves afloat financially, that the concept of spending time with family, or taking adequate recovery time after an illness, is ignored which forces people to get right back on their feet after giving birth or fighting an illness. The lack of time to gain strength puts us in a constant weakened state. If we compare this to the systems in Europe where there given long maternity leave, extended vacations and good quality affordable childcare, it seems unfair.
Another main idea that is introduced throughout the documentary is the influence the media and government has on the American population. The media’s function is to entertain, inform, and provide individuals with the norms and beliefs valued by our society. The government also plays an increasingly large role in the viewing of this content, by funding some of these corporations in exchange for these companies showing certain information. The irony of this is that, while most assume that the media shows what the consumer wants to see, the media produced is first and foremost what the advertisers want to show, as advertising is how media companies make a profit.
Following Marx’s conflict perspective, the documentary discusses two ways in which people are controlled. One is through being frightened, and the other is demoralization. This is much like the current war going on in the Middle East that has been said to be started to fight terrorism and prevent Middle Eastern countries from wielding “weapons of mass destruction” (weapons that in reality never really existed, but where merely an excuse to start a war). These ideological causes for war are built to detract from the real, political reasons for war: money, oil, and power. In fact this has been the case for much of the 20th and 21st centuries, with 7 major wars and numerous conflicts in which the U.S. has inserted itself in one way or another. This has created a near constant state of war for over the last century.
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