Here is an admission that I’ve never made in the decade that I’ve been writing professionally—I cried watching a DVD this weekend. It wasn’t a chick flick. Or a horror movie. Well maybe not a traditional horror movie, but it was still mighty scary.
The movie was “Sicko.” Yep, that crazy Michael Moore’s movie that is unfortunately as relevant as when it first came out. Maybe more so. What does this have to do with a workplace blog? Since most of us get our health insurance from the same place—our job—Sicko has everything to do with work.
Our jobs and health insurance have been inextricably bound together since the late 1940’s. With a flood of soldiers coming back after WWII, corporations positioned health insurance as a perk to attract the best and brightest. Ironically, the movie documents how England went in the exact opposite direction by introducing universal health care right after the war.
I never thought I’d encourage you to go see a movie that promotes a government run health care system, but then again I never thought I’d admit to crying in a movie either.
The movie contains heart breaking scene after scene of people without health insurance literally being tossed on the street in hospital gowns. But the most painful part of the movie weren’t stories from the uninsured. No, the worst parts of the movie are the scenes with people who have health insurance but who are denied treatment. Which raises the question, what is a safety net when it is full of holes. Holes that are big enough for you and me to fall through.
I have another personal confession to make. I once worked for a health insurance company. I saw how claims were reviewed. I didn’t see any cases of people who died for lack of treatment, but I did see a process that was more concerned about cost savings than providing quality health care.
I wish I could offer a silver bullet based on my experience. A way to ensure that you or a loved one will get the treatment you deserve, heck that you paid for. But the system is built so that the maximum decision making power doesn’t lie in the hands of your doctor, but in the bowels of health insurance behemoths.
But rather than demonizing health care workers, the movie interestingly shows how debilitating the system is on them. After all, these are the white-hated Florence Nightingales who got into health care to help people. They didn’t choose this career simply to write “denied” at the bottom of health insurance forms.
Moore contrasts interviews with U.S. health care workers talking about how they hate having to deny treatment to people who need it with health care workers from countries with national health insurance who revel in their ability to simply focus on the needs of their patients rather than billing and access to service quandaries.
Is this movie above reproach? Of course not, after all this is Michael Moore. He falls too much in love with France’s socialized health care system, to just give one example. But don’t lose the bigger point, we are all betting our lives on a house of cards that spends millions to think of creative ways to deny treatment.
But don’t take my word for it. Watch this DVD and then speak up to Congress about a more fair system. Just don’t forget to bring Kleenex, because it could be the scariest ride you take all year.
About the Author: Bob Rosner isa best-selling author and award-winning journalist. For free job and work advice, check out the award-winning workplace911.com. If you have a question for Bob, contact him via bob@workplace911.com.
