illustration by Craig Singleton

I can speak from experience after living in a Democratic socialist society, which characterizes most of Western Europe. For over 2 years, I bore witness to how native German citizens received adequate health care treatment, regardless of pedigree, income or social status. Contrast that to our Democratic capitalist nation as tens of millions of Americans - many of them middle class - get crushed under exorbitant medical bills, excruciatingly high insurance premiums, and callous and frequent insurance rejection. And, since I spent four years in the military, I had firsthand experience of the so-called despised "socialist" medicine as administered through the U.S. Department of Defense and the Air Force. It was the best medical care I have ever received, before or since. Social conservatives, many of whom work on Capitol Hill and deny others universal health care, themselves enjoy "socialist"/universal medical care.

That's why I am going to see Michael Moore's documentary, Sicko, which, according to early reviews, sticks its needle squarely into the carcass that is the pharmaceutical and insurance industries. Moore accuses these leviathan industries of pilfering the poor and robbing medical care from millions of fully insured citizens. Many of these unscrupulous, reptilian practices resulted in agonizing deaths that have devastated families from coast to coast. Insurance companies pay handsome dividends to their executives to ruthlessly and heartlessly find loopholes to deny coverage to legitimately insured individuals and families. We're not even speaking about the 50 million Americans who live precariously without any coverage whatsoever.

As Moore and U.S. Representative John Conyers, D-Mich, propose, the United States - the only democratic society without universal health coverage - should abolish profit-based medical care, and institute the kind of all-encompassing, comprehensive care that has thrived in Canada, Great Britian, France and other societies for decades. We could learn something from our so-called "less-enlightened" political allies. - terry shropshire

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