Sicko

I got a chance to catch Michael Moore's Sicko. I highly recommend that everybody see this film.

Moore takes on the corrupt health care system in the U.S. in his latest venture. It's not that different from other Moore films, in that he takes on a cause talking to the little people affected by the situation like he does in his other films (unemployed auto workers in Flint, Michigan, in Roger and Me, people affected by gun violence in Bowling for Columbine). Moore asked people to send them their HMO horror stories, and in one week he got over 25, 000 stories. Some of these stories are heart wrenching, like the 22 year old woman who was denied by her health insurance company the necessary treatments needed to treat her cervical cancer, because she was too young to have cancer. Or the older couple who has to move in with their daughter because the hospital/health care bill to deal with both of their illnesses put them in so much debt, they had to sell their house. There are so many more stories, because the health care system in America is set up to profit from denying people the care they need.


Just like in his other films, Moore blends stories from the little people, stories about how the system came about because of the corrupt politicians and insurance companies, mixing the right combination of humour and emotion designed to entertain, provoke thoughts and outrage the audience.


Moore takes a look at the system in America and compares it to the health care systems around in the world, in Canada, Britain, France and Cuba. It seems that even in Cuba, with the little resources they have, they have a better health care system than in the U.S. God bless Tommy Douglas. Even though our system is not perfect, at least we don't have a mountain of debt after a hospital visit for necessary care. France has us all beat with free health care, free post secondary education, around the clock doctors who make house calls for free, lots of paid vacation time, and even free government issued nannies to new mothers a few hours a day. The interesting point one of the interview subjects makes is that France has such a great system because they are marching all the time for their rights and the government is afraid of the public, so they work to appease them. In the States, it's the opposite with everybody afraid of the government, so they let the government screw them over.

I won't give away some of the more touching moments involving three 9/11 volunteer rescue workers who were denied care by their health care insurance and the 9/11 funds. I also won't give away a rather humorous story about Moore's good Samaritan act towards one of his biggest critics. I will just say, see the movie.

More ramblings to come.....