BY LYNN PORTER
Crying Through Sicko
Replace expensive, rickety health system
with single-payer
O
n July 4, I walked with my sister through the
park by the river to Valley River Center to
see Michael Moore’s new film Sicko.
Arriving at Regal Cinemas early, we were subjected
to two right-wing propaganda ads against mari-
juana and for the National Guard. Both made me
angry. I wondered if the theater owner had decided
to stick it to us lefties.
Reviews of Sicko have not done justice to its huge
emotional impact. This is a four handkerchief movie, and un-
fortunately I only took two. I was either crying or laughing through most of it. Moore
is a master at making you feel what he wants you to feel and deftly inserting leftist
ideas into the American mind. You come out of the theater smiling. It’s only later
that the outrage at his intended target sets in.
Moore made the political decision to touch briefly on the plight of the uninsured,
my main concern, and spend most of the movie on the struggles of the insured with
their HMOs. I’ve been studying the health insurance issue for years, and I had no
idea. I knew that there had been fights in the 1990s between HMOs and the insured
over coverage, but I thought all that had been settled.
Nope. The HMOs are still at it, using all sorts of sneaky strategies to deny cover-
age. They will simply refuse to insure anyone with any of a long list of pre-existing
conditions, although Moore doesn’t mention that if you’re an employee, these exclu-
sions don’t apply after a certain waiting period. It used to be six months, as I recall.
TO THE EDITOR
FLABBERGASTED
How it is possible to maintain this system I don’t
know, except that the American middle class is
so indifferent to politics and terminally passive.
But that doesn’t settle it. The insurance company can still deny coverage later on
the basis that you didn’t declare some very minor illness when you filled out your
application or that you didn’t know about an illness that a reasonable person would
have known about.
They can also refuse to cover a treatment your doctor recommends if they con-
sider it ineffective or “experimental,” even it’s commonly used.
In other words, anything to avoid paying up. How it is possible to maintain this
system I don’t know, except that the American middle class is so indifferent to poli-
tics and terminally passive. I think too that most people don’t know what their insur-
ance covers until they have to use it for a serious illness, and then it’s too late. And
of course you have to take whatever your employer gives you.
Moore points out that there is a fundamental conflict in privatized, for-profit
medical insurance: The HMOs make a profit by denying care. He contrasts that with
the single-payer, government run health care systems in other civilized countries.
Because we have to pay the high administrative costs of insurance companies, in-
cluding their profits and the high salaries of their CEOs, the U.S. spends much more
per person on health care than other countries, with much poorer measured results
in terms of life expectancy, infant mortality, etc. We are not getting our money’s
worth from our rickety, patchwork health care system.
Many of us are hoping that Sicko will start a serious debate about medical insur-
ance in this country, pushing us towards a single-payer, universal health care solu-
tion. The issue is being felt in national and state politics, but so far the politicians
have offered us what my parents would have called Rube Goldberg contraptions,
complicated public-private hybrids that keep the insurance companies in the loop.
(Goldberg was a cartoonist who drew complex, absurd machines.)
The Oregon Legislature just passed SB 329, the “Healthy Oregon Act.” Insofar as
I can even understand it, the legislation would set up a voluntary medical insurance
purchasing pool for people who are uninsured or on Medicaid, about 30 percent of
the population. A lot of the details about benefits, financing, etc. are still vague. An
appointed board is supposed to come up with a plan to present to the legislature in
2008, and it wouldn’t go into effect until 2010.
What we really need is a nationalized single-payer plan. We won’t get it without a
strong political push. Health care activists need to understand that whatever pro-
posal they come up with has to be simple enough for most people to understand.
Lynn Porter is a Eugene resident active in health and other social issues.
4 JULY 12, 2007
I had a short story of mine recently posted
by your company (“Bloody Hell” Viewpoint,
7/5), and I’m not quite sure that that is a good
thing. I wanted my message to give insight
from the service member’s viewpoint, not be-
come a message of anti-war. I’m a very proud
Marine. I love my country, God and Corps.
I love every person that supports us or
hates us. That’s part of why we join — to
fight for the rights of those who are either not
capable or too cowardly to do it themselves.
Upon viewing your website, I saw a letter
to the editor (“Wrecking Crew,” 7/5) from
someone who was clearly anti-troop. I was
flabbergasted. I can understand anti-war. I
even sympathize with some families that
have lost their own. But for someone to be
anti-troop is just ignorant. And to post a story
from someone who calls service members
stupid is simply fantastic. Thank you.
Again, I believe in freedom of speech and
love that freedom. But how about posting
something pro-troop for a change? Why not
show some of my brothers and sisters that
you care? Or is it too hard to be equal or com-
passionate?
I know and understand that by writing
you, I’m going to accomplish absolutely
nothing, but I figured I’d try anyway. That’s
the great thing about my brothers and sisters
that I work with. When things are wrong,
even when it seems hopeless, we try. We
don’t give up. And we fight for what’s right.
Sometimes it’s a lonely road. But we fight.
Cpl. Grant E. Monge
USMC HLT
Baghdad LNO
ELVES ARE BUSY
As the Oregon Country Fair approaches, I
am struck again by its similarity to Christmas
in the city’s mentality. Elves are busy work-
ing; fancy clothes are being sewn; special
food is being prepared and lots and lots of
happy intentions are directed towards these
three special days. And like Christmas, the
fair does not always live up to the fantasy. We
can infuse these days with so much hope and
expectation that they cannot possibly live up
to it. Tragedy can strike someone’s family
and create an unhappy anniversary.
This year I plan to have a good time at the
fair. I’ve dealt with my old ghosts as much as
I can. Still, I send out extra love for those for
whom this time of year is the Eugene equiva-
lent of being Jewish at Christmas. There is
nothing wrong with you because you have
not found happiness at the fair, in Christmas
or in other holidays. It’s how we live day to
day that counts the most; what we’re like off-
stage, in ordinary clothes, that matters. You
will find your place.
I’ve heard that there is some conflict be-
tween performers and crafters because the
performers often have to spend money to per-
form at the fair, and some crafters make
enough money to last all year. I do not know
how this will be resolved, but as an artist who
is not making money at the fair, I still want to
support my performer friends. I’m suggest-
ing that we artists who may not have money
to give performers give them some of our art.
I’ve never been sorry I gave my art away.
Ruby Colette
aka Ruby the Resourceress
Eugene
ANOTHER WITNESS
I was present at the Eugene Public Library
Storytime on June 13 when the police gave
their program. The information presented by
the two parents who wrote their irate objec-
tions (6/28) was colored by emotionalism and
was not entirely accurate. I would like to
present the facts as I saw them.
First of all, the “gun” issue: Sgt. Barrong, a
soft-spoken, petite policewoman, did not
show the children her gun — she simply spoke
of it as being a weapon which she carried and
had never fired in all her years on the police
force, “unlike the police you see shooting on
television.” She also stressed the special train-
ing required to safely use the weapon and that
it was only used as a last resort. She did not say
that police are the only people who “get to”
use guns. This implies a special treat, which
was not stated or intended.