Sick People Suck

Tom Bartel’s editorial [“To the Barricades,” July 2007] based on Michael Moore’s film Sicko, was misleading in many ways.

The sub-headline mentions health care but the article focuses on health insurance. There is hardly a subtle difference between the two. Few would disagree that the U.S. offers the world’s finest health care, and what’s more it’s available to all, insured and uninsured alike. Twin Cities headlines are replete with daily tales of gunshot victims being treated and released at HCMC (if the Bloods and Crips are offering comprehensive medical insurance, perhaps they should serve as the model rather than Cuba). Illegal aliens flood California emergency rooms, the law stipulating that no one can be turned away.

And before progressives scrawl angry letters claiming race- and class-baiting, rest assured that middle-class folks like me are to blame as well. On the occasions I’ve possessed “Cadillac” health insurance I’ve run to the doctor at the first sign of trouble, sometimes just to catch up on People magazine. Over-consumption is rarely cited as a cause of our nation’s insurance woes; it’s invariably Big Pharmaceutical, reviled until people need medicine or seek a sound investment for their 401Ks.

Bartel is to be forgiven; his article clearly wasn’t intended for critical thinkers. Rather, it was aimed squarely at reactionary types who will rush to theaters and pay eight dollars for the privilege of downing three-gallon buckets of butter-drenched popcorn, slurping sixty-four-ounce sodas, and watching a 400-pound man lecture them about health.