19 November 2007
We watched the latest Michael Moore film “Sicko” on Saturday night. I highly recommend it to every American.
Health-care is always something that we’ve felt rather passionately about, particularly the American system. Since I lived in the States for 8 years and Brian is American, we did have our run-ins with the system. We are incredibly blessed by our health and lack of chronic diseases or major accidents. Brian and I are both strongly in favour of universal health-care.
As a Canadian, I could not comprehend that I had to pay to go to the doctor. Or pay for medical care that I needed. I’ve never heard of anything so ridiculous as making people’s health a “for-profit” system. It’s demeaning and anti-family and just plain wrong.
In Canada, Tommy Douglas (a pastor from Saskatchewan) started the universal health-care movement in Canada. There was initially the usual hue and cry; the doctors went on strike, the people were told they’d wait for years for care, that the quality of care would deteriorate.
It all turned out to be hogwash. No, it’s not a perfect system. But you know what? It’s ethical. It’s effective. It’s working well. We don’t carry the worry and cost of medical care. And I have to be honest, I love it.
For instance, when I became pregnant in 2005 and we were living in Tex*s, I was referred to an ob-gyn. They immediately gave me free samples of formula. Formula! I was 5 weeks pregnant and already the profit driven machine was encouraging decisions that are known to place undue risks on babies. Then when we discovered that the baby had died in the womb at 11 weeks, when I didn’t elect for the surgery to remove the baby (a D&C), they dropped me like a hot potato. I was no longer $$ to them. I laboured at home to deliver the baby myself. And yet somehow for months afterwards, we were paying incremental bills that eventually added up to well over $1500. For a pregnancy that ended at 12 weeks and was delivered at home. My friends, when they delivered their babies, had to go on payment plans. $400 a month until they had paid their deductible. I have other friends that have sick children or parents. And rather than being able to concentrate on being well or caring for them, they are consumed with worry over money, spiralling into debt and losing their minds with the stress of it all.
On the other hand, with Anne, I never paid a bill. I went to every appointment with Brian. I delivered in a beautiful hospital. I had the best ob-gyn known to man and a phenomenal birth experience. They centered the entire process around natural birth. After Anne was born, they immediately encouraged and coached breastfeeding. There was no nursery to whisk the baby away to so that they could stuff formula in her; she slept in my room. Brian had a cot to spend the night with us in our little room.
Sure, my friends had a more beautiful room. My room decorations were sparse and the hospital was older. But I had a family-centred experience. And I didn’t have to pay. We walked out with our daughter and have never paid a dime.
I had excellent care. The best doctors and finest nurses. They were not unmotivated. There was no out of date equipment. I was never waiting on anyone but the baby. When I gave birth to Anne, I had public health nurses come to my home and provide care and insight. They would have come over every day if I’d asked for it.
50% of Americans that go bankrupt state that it is due to medical bills. It’s a great system if you never get sick.
I suppose I see the health-care system of the States as the apex of hypocrisy. For people that trumpet things like “values” in every election, their entire system is anti-family and pro-capitalism/big business. If they would offer an eighth of the energy they pour into pro-life and anti-gay-marriage/civil unions to fight for real family issues, they might actually get somewhere.
For instance, the fact that American women have C-sections at alarming rates. Their infant mortality rate is abysmal. They treat pregnancy like a sickness instead of a natural process. They prefer medical intervention … why? Because the drug companies stand to profit from those decisions. Rather than choosing a natural or holistic method, they always opt for the more expensive or invasive approach. They are not encouraged to breastfeed and society treats public breastfeeding as something sexual instead of normal. They spend more on healthcare than any other nation yet nearly 50 million are uninsured. Americans are denied preventative care, their emergencies rooms are full of the un-and-under insured. Their health is deteriorating compared to the health of other nations were health care is free. They are unhealthy and dying due to this system.
In Canada, the supposed “liberal” and “anti-family” nation, we offer universal health care for all. That’s a value that states that everyone deserves medical care regardless of their socio-economic status. And we offer a year of paid maternity and parental leave. It can even be split between fathers and mothers so that I can take the 15 weeks of maternity leave and then split the 35 weeks of parental leave with Brian so we each get to be home with the baby. It’s a value that mothers are important and babies need to breastfeed and that bonding is valuable for society. You might call it a family value.
It’s easy for those of not in the States to see that the senators and law-makers are in the pockets of the HMOs and drug companies. They demoralise the people with fear and threats. “Oh, it’s socialised medicine!” So what? You’ve socialised school and the post office. Isn’t this more important?
My favourite part of the movie was when Michael Moore was interviewing a former old Labour MP from England.
I wish that Christians would galvanize around an issue that would matter for once.
