Schwitzer health news blog

Princeton economist thanks Michael Moore

Princeton economist Uwe Reinhardt writes in the BMJ that "film maker Michael Moore is to be thanked for holding up mirrors to the US healthcare system."

Reinhardt continues:

"...Moore's series of movies on America's many warts do not seem to be intended as well balanced, scholarly treatises. Instead, like his earlier movies, Sicko should be seen as a plank swung squarely into the viewers' faces, to get their attention for one overarching question: "What have we Americans become as a people to allow so much callousness and outright cruelty in a health system that is abundantly endowed with resources—in many instances excessively well endowed—and, as most Americans must know, also is home to much human kindness and excellence?" ...

To Canadians and Europeans it will be incomprehensible that in for-profit and non-profit hospitals alike, along with community pharmacies, bills for uninsured patients, who typically are from the lower income strata, are routinely twice or three times higher than the prices paid by private insurance companies. Jailing a mother of two over an unpaid hospital bill caused by a miscarriage would be even more incomprehensible. Surely it can fairly be asked, as Moore does, why these harsh edges are necessary in a system that spends almost twice as much per capita on health care as does neighbouring Canada and many times more than comparable European countries. Indeed, it can be asked what Canada's or Europe's health systems could offer their citizens if, like the United States, they chose to allocate 16% of their gross domestic product to health care, rather than the 9% to 10% these countries actually spend.

It remains to be seen what impact Moore's Sicko ultimately will have on the forthcoming debate over health reform in the United States, and on the plight of underprivileged people in America on obtaining health care. Meanwhile, Americans should be thankful that Moore uses his talent and his financial resources to hold up mirrors in which they can behold the blemishes in their complexion. It is one necessary step on the way to a better countenance."