Paramount
If you watched Obama's speech last night, you probably have health care on the brain. Here are five recent films that weigh in on the debate:
Last Holiday
Queen Latifah plays a department store employee who is diagnosed suddenly with multiple fatal brain tumors. Since her HMO wont cover the cost of the operation, Latifah decides to spend her savings and the final weeks of her life -- on a dream vacation to Eastern Europe.
Lesson about health care: When life gives you lemons, dont expect your HMO to help you out.
John Q
Denzel Washington plays a man desperate to save his young son, whose health insurance doesn't cover a critical heart transplant. When Washington is unable to raise the money before the hospitals deadline, he takes everyone in the emergency room hostage.
Lesson about health care: Desperate times call for desperate measures but they wouldn't, if our health insurance system wasn't broken.
Sicko
Michael Moore's documentary counts the failures of the current U.S. health care system, comparing it unfavorably to nationalized health care in Canada, Europe and (yikes) Cuba.
Lesson about health care: If America is the greatest country in the world, don't we deserve the best health care?
As Good as it Gets
Helen Hunt is a broke diner waitress with a severely OCD regular, played by Jack Nicholson. When Hunt misses a shift to care for her severely asthmatic son, Nicholson is so upset at his break in routine that he hires a personal physician to care for her son who immediately improves under this better treatment.
Lesson about health care: It's a whole different ballgame for the rich.
Wit
Emma Thompson plays a brilliant English literature professor in the final stages of cancer. As she undergoes hospital treatments, she realizes that all her intellectual accomplishments havent shown her the true depth of either death or love.
Lesson about health care: People don't stop thinking and feeling just because theyre near death. So maybe end-of-life counseling isn't such a bad idea after all.
