A few months ago, I saw the documentary “Sicko”. It’s directed by Michael Moore and compared the American healthcare industry with that of other nations. The Americans are finally grappling with universal health insurance…now dubbed “Obamacare”.
Even though I was horrified by the revelation that insurance companies in the U.S. have warped the healthcare system to such an extent that it’s geared towards churning out billions of dollars in profits instead of providing healthcare, I was even more troubled by the section of the movie that detailed Hillary Clinton’s healthcare reform proposal of 1993.
I was astounded that her opponents were willing to spend over US$100 million just to discredit her proposal. But most of all, I was disappointed in how even she could be paid off (US$854,462 the movie claims) to remain silent.
After I’ve completed my medical studies, I’ll be entering the ‘real world’. I’ll have to work within a system, and if that system is flawed or unfair, I’ll either have to accept things as they are, or make a move to bring about change. But it’s very difficult to be the lone voice speaking out. It engenders a feeling of powerlessness in not being able to change something that one knows can cause harm.
It shook me to the core to see how someone like Hillary Clinton, so passionate about something as vital to her as healthcare, could be so effectively muzzled and reduced to introducing her husband at ‘Easter Egg Rolls’. And the revelation that even she had a price that she could be bought off with left an even bitterer aftertaste.
The movie forced me to put myself into the shoes of the doctors, the insurance victims, the politicians and think about what I might have done had I been in their position. And then I started thinking about my future and what I could do to avoid being swept away by the money-making mentality that seems to have gripped medicine.
Looking around our amphitheatre, I realised that my fellow students were also deeply affected by the movie but in various different ways. Some seemed especially troubled by the stories of persons being turned away by insurance companies. The experience certainly made me do a lot of introspection and analyse why exactly I was so shaken by the silencing of Hillary in particular.
There’s always this unequal distribution of power working within a system and when those with entrenched interests and power don’t want to make changes, it’s difficult to turn the tide. In Hillary’s case, the powerful healthcare industry’s US$100 million fear mongering efforts to torpedo her proposal was unassailable.
I just hope that I can make the right decisions when confronted by tough choices. Something as rigorous as studying medicine changes you. I’ve already had to make adjustments. I hope that at the end of the process, I can still recognise myself and most of all that I can stand up for what I believe is right when it truly matters. I’ll have to set limits that I’ll never cross, based on my personal value-system.
It isn’t worth being rich if the price is a guilt-ridden conscience that keeps me awake at night. To play my part in effecting change in a mercenary system, I plan on volunteering my services to the poor and powerless during some of my free time and I can encourage my fellow physicians to do the same. While we mightn’t be able to accomplish a complete revolution in the system, we can do our little part at the individual level. Every little act adds up. Who knows? If there are enough of us taking innovative steps, we might just be able to reform our small part of the world.