Still, it is hard to deny that the United States is not just failing in terms of health care; we seem to be failing to take care of people—physically, emotionally, and mentally. At the end the film, Moore asks, “Who are we?”
In other words, what kind of country lets greedy corporations bilk sick citizens out of millions of dollars and years of health? The reason the World Health Organization has rated us 37th out of its 191 countries (behind places like Columbia, Costa Rica, and parts of the Middle East) is not because we do not have the latest health care technology or innovation—we are the leaders in that. And although the bottom line for insurance and pharmaceutical companies has lead to exorbitant health care costs, it does not explain why we have the highest rate of infant mortality of any industrialized country. Societal factors—race inequality, stress, and poverty—are the root of these problems and have more to do with the ugly side of America than the ugly side of health care.
Our greater social ills cannot be solved by universal healthcare; it would only be treating a symptom of a larger problem. But perhaps, as Moore suggests, it is a start. Long lines and delayed treatment are things we associate with socialized medicine, but it doesn’t take farther than a trip to a public hospital’s emergency room to realize that our poor and disenfranchised already have that.
