"It's All Free"
Length of Film Clip: 3 mins
Written by: Jordan Allapitan
Michael Moore travels to Great Britain to compare their health care system with the U.S health care system. He interviews a British doctor to get their perspective in working in a Universal Health Care system. Michael Moore’s intent is to juxtapose an American doctor and a British doctor who work under different systems. American doctors work under a private health care system with no government control, while the British doctors work under a government controlled health care system. Moore discreetly underlies several issues within the American health care system when he asks questions to the British doctor. The doctor states that he has never had to turn away a patient because they couldn’t afford the treatment they required. Yet American doctors had generated many excuses and loopholes to turn down or remove patients who can’t afford treatment but are in desperate need of help. With these set of question Moore aims to confront the American health care system by comparing it with the British system and inadvertently showing that the British system was better. He begs the question of why the British doctor could afford to treat every patient but the doctors in America turn away a lot of their patients. Since the doctor didn’t turn away patients, Moore expected that the doctor was low paid because he was paid by the government. In Moore’s interview, he finds that the British doctor is prospering under the government controlled system. Moore expected that he would live in a low end house in the rough part of town with an “old-beater” car that he uses to get to work. To Moore’s surprise, the doctor lived in a million dollar house and was driving an Audi. The scene shows the doctor driving up in a Black Audi with MTV Cribs style music playing. The doctor then shows his extravagant three story house that he live in. This scene shows that doctor was prospering under the government controlled system. The doctor also states that they get paid more if their patients are doing better under their system. But in America, the doctor gets paid more when they don’t treat patients because they’re saving the insurance companies money. In these set of scenes, Moore indirectly demands that the U.S. should adopt a system similar to the British. By describing how well the doctor was doing, Moore is able to emphasize that the American doctors could be paid well and still treat every patient they come across. The British democratic ideas adopted this government controlled system for the beneficial well being of their people while America is ignorantly ignoring the needs of the people and conserving the idea of laissez-faire. He questions efficiency of having privately owned insurance companies instead of having a government controlled insurance system. Because the British people are healthier and doing better under their system, Moore questions if the American system will keep working.