The Word Not Heard

It occurred to me recently that there's been one word missing from the Health Care Reform debate raging in the U.S., and that word is Sicko (OK, more of a title than a word).

Before I saw Michael Moore's 2007 film about the sad state of health care coverage in America, I honestly had no idea that it was in such a crisis mode. Part of the reason for that, I'm sure, is that I don't live in the States, and therefore haven't personally experienced the effect of the very real "death panels" that are run by insurance industry bureaucrats there, each and every day. I don't know if watching Sicko sensitized me to the situation, but it certainly seemed like it wasn't long after watching it before I started coming across more and more stories of comic book veterans who needed auctions held in their name in order to raise money for medical expenses, and comic book collectors who were selling off their prized possessions to cover the cost of this operation or that one. While I'm sure that Moore's satirical foray into Health Care is flawed in many ways, it still managed to bring the crisis to the forefront of my mind, as I'm sure it did many others.

Which is why I'm surprised, as I visit website after website and watch discussion after discussion, all on the topic of the Health Care Reform Bill that may or may not come into being and be passed, that there's virtually no mention of Sicko by anyone involved. It may be that liberals don't want to evoke the name for fear that backlash against Moore will hurt their chances, while conservatives don't want to risk the chance that someone might go see the film and come away more sympathetic to reform. But I wonder if, years from now, Americans will look back at Sicko and think, "How did our country ever live like that?" in much the same way that people react to tales of slavery or racism from years gone by.