CLEARLAKE – as every American knows, we're “the richest, most powerful nation on the planet.”

Why, then, do we rank dead last among developed nations in preventable deaths? Why is the US “the most obese nation in history”? Why is our health care system actually “a phenomenally expensive disease-care system”? Why are most US bankruptcies due to excruciatingly high medical bills – and why are 47 million Americans uninsured?

Second Sunday Cinema's two free films for June 14 do answer those questions, but place far more emphasis on providing solid information on how we can stay healthy and change our health system to provide affordable, equitable, high-quality health care for all our citizens, no matter what our income is.

Amiable Frontline reporter TR Reid visited five capitalist democracies to get information on how they provide health care in Britain, Japan, Germany, Taiwan and Switzerland. The result is his entertaining, fast-moving and informative film, “Sick Around the World.”

Although their approaches differ in some ways, all five nations can boast of the following: their citizens are happy to pay nothing or next to nothing for excellent preventive and sick care. Waiting lists are either short or nonexistent. Doctors pay little to nothing for malpractice insurance; they're not filthy rich, but are comfortable and relaxed, and enjoy their work.

Legislators here at home are now beginning to consider health-care reform. But we don't have to reinvent the wheel here, folks! Successful systems are already up and running. None of those five nations have that much-feared “socialized medicine.”

This film is way better than Michael Moore's “Sicko” because it provides solid, detailed, hopeful and interesting information on how we, too, can enjoy an excellent health-care system – if only we can get our legislators to support public health care.

Of course the best way to go is to avoid doctors and hospitals as much as possible. One of the reasons US citizens are notably less healthy than the people of other developed nations can be summed up thusly: Due to the current system and our lack of information, we wait until symptoms emerge, and then pay huge sums of money to get our symptoms treated instead of being healed.

How about this alternative: we eat healthy foods, we get a lot of exercise doing things we love and which we can afford since we're not spending our money on sky-high health insurance.

As of now, the US government subsidizes high-fat, high-salt, high-sugar processed “foods” but gives no subsidies at all to healthy fruit, nut, vegetable and leguminous crops. Until the government changes its ways, we can take charge of our own lives by eating real, unprocessed and healthy foods healthily prepared. Then we won't have to take time off to go see the doctor (which is always such fun).

These two films are one hour and 40 minutes, respectively. Stay for one or both.

The venue is the Clearlake United Methodist Church at 14521 Pearl Ave. in Clearlake. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and the film starts at 6 p.m.

For more information call 707-279-2957.