Islamic Insights

The controversial film director, Michael Moore, is at it again with his latest work, "Sicko." Similar to many of Moore’s previous works, his passion about the subject--America's allegedly broken health care system-- at hand is palatable, but his objectivity is somewhat questionable and profoundly simplistic.

In Moore's latest film, socialized medicine is good while HMOs are bad. Unfortunately, life is a tad bit more complex then such simplified slogans. However, give the man credit for attempting to provide discourse on the role that insurance and drug companies play in American healthcare.

Moore's documentary starts by showing us what is happening to those Americans without healthcare. He then informs us that the movie is about the plight of those with healthcare. He proceeds to go from one horror story to the next with each story becoming more tragic and insurance companies becoming more sinister.  The issue at hand is, are these awful stories the norm or tragic outliers?

After being completely disturbed by the plight of many of my fellow Americans, I began to question my choice of becoming a physician and began to wonder if it was not too late for me to try out for the New York Yankees!  The nightmare continued as Moore gave us the political history of how HMOs started and Senator Hillary Clinton's failed attempt at starting universal healthcare when she was first lady.  Moore later shows us how many of our politicians regardless of political affiliations have benefited from HMO and drug companies political contributions.  All of these lead the American viewer to question who it is who will care for us. 

After painting a completely grim picture of the American health care system, Moore then packs his bags and travels to Canada, England, France and Cuba. There, Moore highlights how all of these countries provide excellent healthcare systems that are allegedly better then our own.  This is where the movie loses some credibility. 

Yes, there are substantial problems within our system but the healthcare system in other countries is not as rosy as depicted.

Also, it is somewhat disingenuous to compare healthcare systems among countries and not mention how in America we live in a very litigious society.  The malpractice that physicians pay is simply staggering.  I think that there is a lot of lip service about preventive medicine and primary care but look at the obesity epidemic in our country and that speaks volumes on how serious we are about prevention.

Where I thought "Sicko" succeeded was in its emphasis upon empathy.  When I talk about empathy I am not talking about mushy, psycho-babble stuff such as, "I can feel your pain when you were five years old and your cat Rufus stubbed his toe."  No, I am talking about the way in which one human can relate to another human in a much more meaningful, deeper and potentially healthier manner.  Renowned Psychiatrist Heinz Kohut, MD defined empathy as the capacity to think and feel oneself into the inner life of another person.  Is this not a lesson of Muharram?

Without empathy it is very difficult for humans to have healthy, supportive relationships with each other, thereby allowing apathy to reign.  Maybe if as a society we developed a collective empathy for one another regardless of race, ethnicity, religious affiliation or socioeconomic status, we as a people would develop a strong healthcare system that the world can admire and attempt to emulate. That, to me, is the take home message of Sicko.

The author is a professor of adolescent psychiatry at Harvard University and a doctor.

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