Clinton/Moore '08

When Michael Moore sees injustice, he does not waste time pandering to our rational side. Instead he pulls our heartstrings, appeals to our sympathy for the everyman and points an angry, nay, incensed finger at the powers that be. He does all this and more in “SiCKO,” his new documentary about the American health care system. \nThe documentary has been strategically released during the 2008 presidential election preseason while candidates are already scrambling for votes. Up to bat are a few health care reform veterans – namely Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney. \nHillary Clinton was the backbone of a 1990s plan to overhaul our vastly inefficient and unjust health care system in favor of universal coverage, but her plan floundered, and her husband was never able to revive the initiative. Since April of this year, she has adamantly supported universal health care and made it a cornerstone of her campaign. But Moore vilifies her in “SiCKO,” claiming she has been bought off by private insurance companies. \nYet Clinton vociferously criticizes private companies for the same reasons as Moore. They both claim that private insurance companies deny coverage to those who need it most. Insurance companies, as “SiCKO” and Clinton remind us, are out to make money, not to provide us with affordable health care. \nBut where Clinton leaves off, Mitt Romney, the Massachusetts Mormon running on the Republican ticket, picks up. Last year he signed universal health coverage into law in Massachusetts that went into effect July 1. His Republican version of universal coverage involves state subsidies to private insurance companies. Furthermore, the burden of responsibility for universal coverage is not on the state but on the individual: If an individual does not seek health coverage from an insurance company, he or she will be penalized through their state income taxes. For these reasons, Romney’s plan subverts the idea that “universal” coverage also means nationalized health care. His plan is a hybrid of state and private initiatives, but the essential players in the Massachusetts plan are the private insurance companies.\nRomney’s plan should come as no surprise. Since the 1940s and ’50s, state power has rolled back in the United States while flourishing in Western Europe and Canada. Our Cold War-era lexicon makes nationalized-anything a dirty word. The trend in America is to privatize, not nationalize. Accordingly, many Democrats fear being called commies and shy away from the term “nationalize” when talking about health care. Instead, Obama and Edwards euphemistically say things like health care should be “more widely available.” \nBut it’s time to face the facts. 50 million American citizens have no health insurance, and the rest of us are slaves to the whims of insurance companies. Nationalized health care systems, such as those in Canada, the U.K., France and even Cuba offer their country free, quality health care. Health is a basic human right. Michael Moore and even Mitt Romney know our present system is defunct.\nIt’s time to nationalize health care.