So, you know, you can get this off the internet the same way I get most of my video entertainment (savvy?), and I just watched it and it was really good. I don't go for Moore's coy, "gee mister, don't people in Cuba have to pay for healthcare" character, but his films can be quite thoughtful, and this is some of his best work. The assembled stores really speak for themselves.

One thing that stuck out for me was this bit from France, where they make sure that if you're poor and you need to take a cab home you can walk out with some cash. There's a line where the French doctor says, when asked about paying bills, something along the lines of, "the only qualification for walking out is that you're healthy enough and are going someplace safe."

That hit home for me, reminded me of the bike crash that got me wearing a helmet:

Actually, the stitches are not that much of a pain. There were a few woozy moments in the ER, but the real damage is muscular. I righteously pulled out my groin and jammed by elbow, both on the left side. Heading in I could walk and move pretty well. Walking out of the hospital took me a full five minutes gimping along, coming close to out and out crying on the ramp leading to the street. It’s a hell of a thing to be totally incapacitated.

That was a real fucked-up five minute walk down a 40-foot hallway. I was scared that I wouldn't be able to make it, moving literally one foot in front of the other out to the street to get a car to take me back to Brooklyn. The way the hospital staff would look away as they passed by, or give this kind of sheepish "good luck" grin, still sticks with me. I believe the system we have is evil on a kind of spiritual level for creating moments like that.

Another thing that stuck with me was the first thing Dr. Miller (he was good; I remember his name) asked when he saw my head was whether or not to send me up to a plastic surgeon. I did a double-take and told him I didn't have any coverage and he paused a beat and then said "I'll do the absolute best I can."

As like I said, he did good. Those stitches healed up straight and true and unless I've gotten a lot of sun you can barely tell they were there. And anyway, chicks dig scars, right?

I've lived largely without insurance since graduating from college, all except for the year I worked for MFA, and for the most part it's been ok. I'm lucky to be strong and healthy in spite of my breakneck lifestyle and questionable diet. One time I got a bad flu and went to the San Francisco Free Clinic, which is a leftover from the 60s, but where I got penicillin for $3. The first time I really wrecked in NYC it was late and there was no traffic cop to see me go down and hustle me into an ambulance, and I didn't need stitches or anything, so I biked home and just gutted it out.

I've done allright. I've been lucky. As I get a little older I get to feeling a bit more risk-averse. Soon we'll have insurance through work, and that'll be nice; but the truth is, as this film makes abundantly clear, an insurance-based, profit-driven health care system will always be extremely problematic, as it's paradigmatically oriented away from providing treatment. Even for those with coverage.

I've said before that I want my first new car to be an alternative fuel or electric vehicle. Similarly, I'd really like it if by the time I have kids we've gotten our shit together to where health care isn't such a humongous clusterfuck. Here's hoping.