Saturday, June 23, 2007

"Sicko"? Sucks!

"Sicko", l'ultima produzione cinematografica di quel "Big, fat, stupid white man" di Michael Moore, uscirà il 29 giugno nei cinema americani. La nuova fatica del regista non si limita solo raccontare - o meglio sputtanare - l'intero sistema sanitario americano, ma va ben oltre, proponendo una soluzione ai problemi della sanità americana. Come? Eliminando le assicurazioni private e rimpiazzandole con un massiccio programma federale. Roba da far commuovere il nostro presidente della Camera. E mentre Bertinotti ritaglia una foto di Micheal Moore e se la mette nel portafogli, i democratici (quelli che al tempo di "Fahrenheit 9/11" portavano il regista in palmo di mano) fanno orecchie da mercante. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama e John Edwards sono stati letteralmente massacrati durante la proiezione in anteprima di Sicko a Washington. Commentando i loro programmi alla voce "sanità", Moore avrebbe detto che il programma di Hillary non è chiaro, quello di Edwards non va bene perché prevederebbe l’investimento di denaro pubblico in aziende private e quello di Obama non sarebbe abbastanza specifico.

La provocazione più grande arriva quando Moore vola a Cuba insieme a malati che, ovviamente, vengono curati e che, altrettanto ovviamente, ricevono un trattamento migliore di quello offerto dalle strutture americane. Insomma, nel paese dove notoriamente, grazie alla magnanimità di Fidel Castro, le persone non hanno neanche le lacrime per piangere, il sistema sanitario funziona alla perfezione. Cliniche a cinque stelle, dotate di apparecchiature all'avanguardia, dove tutti i malati del mondo vorrebbero farsi curare.

Che la sanità negli Stati Uniti possa essere migliorata è un dato di fatto, ma da questo a dire, come fa Moore, che il sistema sanitario cubano sia migliore di quello americano, è un'affermazione che rasenta il ridicolo. Per fortuna gli americani sono meno stupidi e creduloni di quanto Mr. Sicko pensi. Infatti, alla domanda "chi, tra Stati Uniti e Cuba, offre il servizio sanitario migliore?" hanno risposto così.

3 comments:

Elena said...

You probably have rich parents, did not have to go to hospital a lot, and most likely are a selfish self absorbed person who does not give a shit about who is less lucky than you are.
Bottom line is, in Europe health care is not perfect, but at least IT IS THERE FOR EVERYBODY.
Go back to Italy, we don't need people like you here.

GFP said...

E,
the purpose of my blog (or any blog, for that matter), is to provide a forum where I can state my opinions and engage in meaningful dialogue with those willing to express theirs. Obviously, in the course of such a process there are bound to be differences of opinion. A blog is a way where such differences of opinion can be brought to the surface and deliberated by all readers.

I am sorry to see that you have chosen to use this forum to engage in a personal attack on me. You call me selfish and make unwarranted assumptions about me, my family and background simply because you disagree with something I wrote. You also propose as a solution to our differing views by suggesting that I move back to Italy. What a thoughtful and eloquent suggestion! You must have spent a considerable amount of time formulating it...

Firstly, I suggest you brush up on your Italian. Maybe then you could better understand what I wrote in my post and, if you so chose, respond with something a bit more considered (and possibly a bit more polite)


Second, lets deal with some facts. I didn't write that the US health care system is perfect. Indeed, I wrote that it could use a lot of improvement. But, to suggest, as Mr. Moore does, that the Cuban system is better is a very simplistic, myopic and ultimately incorrect view. For example, you correctly note that "in Europe health care is not perfect" [do you know any place on earth where it is perfect?] but that "IT IS THERE FOR EVERYBODY". This, again, is a convenient rendering of the facts. If I were to employ the same fact finding technique, I'd argue that the same thing could be said for the US. Public facilities exist; we don't have people dying in the streets in any great numbers. We even mandate that illegal immigrants are entitled to public facility care despite their status.

Examining a health care system requires an examination of the society within which it exists. So, maybe the correct statement is: "How fortunate are the Cubans who, after a lifetime of no opportunity, poverty, no freedom, torture fir stating their expressions and no future whatsoever get to see state doctors without charge for their injuries and illnesses (many of which, I would argue, are caused by the policies of that very same state).

There are ample comparisons to be made to European systems. Which is "better" is very subjective. Is the liver transplant patient waiting 5 years and deteriorating under the UK's NHS system for "free", better off than an insured american worker who might have to pay a co share for the same immediate operation and get to then live a meaningful life. What about other cases? These are difficult questions requiring thought not incongruous outbursts of emotion and uninformed opinion suggested by you and your colleague Mr. Moore

ciao ciao!

fc said...

What E. (?) writes about the US and the european health care system is simply ridiculous (the EUROPEAN health care system does not exist, by the way, but he/she is so full of liberal cliches that he/she doesn't even know it: all he/she knows is that it has to be better because it's EUROPEAN, i.e. NOT AMERICAN).

Actually, he/she is a poor recycler of statalist and anti-american commonplaces.
This book
http://www.amazon.com/Anti-Americanism-Jean-Francois-Revel/dp/159403060X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-5085585-4297744?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1185288773&sr=1-1
(written by a french philosopher, ops!) explains the roots and the errors of his/her ideas. And many pages are about what people like him/her think about the US health care system.

PS. Him/her writes "we don't need people like you here". "We"? How many people is him/her? Is him/her speaking on behalf of his/her friends? Of his/her family? Surely not of the american people. Whose majority seems to think (and vote) so differently from him/her...

Simply ridiculos. And, like almost every liberal, so ill-bred. :-D