Sicko.

A few nights ago, Coffee and I decided to see “Sicko” – the new Michael Moore movie about the health care system in the United States. It made me laugh and it made me weepy and, most importantly, it reminded me why my dreams of relocating to the coast of Oregon will never come to fruition.

Universal health care is one of those things I don’t ponder very often. Living in Canada means that when I feel sick – any kind of sick – I call the doctor and I make an appointment and that’s the end of the story. The words, “can’t afford it” never enter into things. Being employed or not being employed don’t impact on my health care.

I’ve never had to choose between a health concern and groceries for my family or a mortgage payment to keep a roof over our heads. I’ve never had to factor health care benefits into a job search (though I bitch, heartily, that Coffee’s job doesn’t have dental/medication coverage). I’ve never had to sacrifice my health due to anything financially-related.

When we adopt, we’ll simply take our kids to the doctor whenever they’re unwell. There are no forms to fill out, no insurance to find, no “pre-existing conditions” to worry about.

Lest you think otherwise, please know that the Canadian health care system does have its problems. Long wait times are the biggest issue, followed very closely by an insufficient number of doctors in many cities (and small towns) across the country.

An American friend who moved to Canada a decade ago was dismayed by how “unfancy” the labour and delivery room at the local hospital was when compared to the “birthing suite” she had in a major US hospital several years prior.

But the quality of care was the same. And the cost? Non-existent. Aesthetics aside, I think the quality is the most important, right? And being able to have a baby “for free” was awesome in her mind.

Coffee and I regularly discuss the differences in health care systems – he was lucky enough to be insured (and healthy) while he lived in the United States, but he knows what each cost to the doctor or hospital would have cost him had he not had that safety net through his employment.

It’s long been known that mental health and physical health are linked. It sucks to be sick and it sucks even more if you’re not only dealing with the symptoms of your illness but also with the anxiety and frustration of trying to find care. Trying to finance that care. Trying to not be a burden on your loved ones, trying not to sacrifice your safety net, trying to be brave..

I can’t imagine what it’s like to know your illness is sucking your family down into a never-ending pool of debt. I am horrified when I read about people who continue to pay medical bills for decades following the death of a family member.

Reading blogs – a lot of them written by American citizens – I am awed (and not in a good way) by the number of online requests for help. Fundraising raffles for “average people” who had the bad luck of getting sick or having a child with a serious illness. It’s so completely foreign as to seem insane to me.

Now I know there are people who argue that Michael Moore’s “Sicko” – and all of his other movies, really – are geared toward shocking the viewer. He chooses only the worst-case scenarios to discuss and dissect in his documentaries, right? He assembles only the most dramatic of clips to illustrate his side of the issue.

(And I don’t really believe that Sicko only featured the worst stories – I’ve heard many, many, many others that were just as terrible or worse.)

I don’t doubt that there are many people in the U.S. who have fantastic health care. Families with a doctor they like, care that they feel is more than adequate.. and all of it covered by their insurance. But those are the ones that got lucky. Why didn’t Michael Moore profile them?

It’s not because they don’t have a compelling health-care story (though, for the most part, they don’t) it’s because the most needy of our societies are the people that need to be focused on. We need to care for those of us who need that help the most. That’s what a good community does.

We don’t look at a starving man and say, “But everyone else has a sandwich!” We open shelters and foodbanks and serve Christmas dinners in soup kitchens. We offer them $2 in spare change, at least.

We don’t look at a family who suffers the loss of their home in a fire and say, “Everyone else has a home!” and walk on by. We hold fundraisers and we open our doors to them for a while and we collect up spare clothes and toys for the kids.

Health care is the basis of our existence – even when we’re not desperately ill. Somehow it seems wrong to say, “A lot of people have great health care!” while averting our eyes from the people who don’t have it.

Did the movie offer up some shock value? Sure. Was it necessary, yeah, I think so. Do I think it painted the full picture? No. But I think it presented enough of the ‘real picture’ to hopefully motivate the right people to do the right thing – or, at least, for the general public to gather up some outrage at how members of their own community are suffering and, perhaps, to take action.

I’m glad I live in Canada. Long wait times be damned.