the american dream

So. Was watching Michael Moore's Sicko last night. (And before anyone starts, yes, I know I should've been studying considering my first final is like next Wednesday. I'll get to it. Soon.)

Anyways, like I was saying, Sicko is about America's health care system with the HMOs and the kinda screwed up health insurance policies. As with all of Moore's films, his take on the issue is incredibly one-sided but scathingly funny. So it's always best to take his psuedo-documentaries with a pinch of salt.

But still.

Some of the things he showed is really pretty flabbergasting. Like dumping patients who can't pay their hospital bills at shelters. Or demanding a pre-approval for the use of an ambulance from a woman who suffered a concussions and was unconscious. Right.

Comparing the American health care systems to Canada, England, France and even Cuba, Moore sarcastically but effectively bashes his own country's methods, vilifying the health insurance companies and (his favorite subject of ridicule) President George W. Bush.

While I'm sure the film was subjected to his creative editing (and, let's face it, taking a boat to Guantanamo Bay is really manipulative), the whole film just makes me wonder why the Americans seem to take issue with socialized health care. They make it sound like it's the world's greatest evil for the government to take on health care. But from what I've read and watched with the media, leaving it in the hands of the insurance and pharmaceutical companies really isn't working out so well, is it?

So it got me thinking about this "American dream" thing that everyone always goes on about. I mean if you're not getting the health care you need in an escalating global economic crisis largely due to your own president's fabulous sub-prime housing plan, then, well, what is this American dream?