Movie Review
Sicko
Posted by El Bicho (elbicho@filmschoolrejects.com) on June 24, 2007
Michael Moore is back with another documentary that is sure to get the country involved in another debate, which, even if you vehemently disagree with his point of view, is much better than the usual passive experience of movies. Sicko will make you think, make you learn, and hopefully make you act.
Rather than focusing on Americans without health insurance that politicians usually talk about, Moore examines those who have it. He starts with a series of sad stories about the hardships people have had with insurance companies and then interviews those who have worked on the inside, allowing them to explain the tricks of the trade of denying coverage and saving the company money. Insurance companies are business so obviously profits are their motive, but how much is a human life worth? Would you understand if a company saved $500 as opposed to performing a test that could save your life? Your spouse’s? Your child’s?
The film looks at the U.S. government’s involvement in health care from Nixon’s interest in Kaiser Permanente’s HMOs once he found out they were private enterprise to Hillary Clinton’s work as the chairwoman of the Task Force on National Health Care Reform and President Bush’s Medicare prescription-drug plan, whose main supporter, Congressman Billy Tauzin, went to work for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America the same day he left Congress.
Moore compares and contrasts the U.S. health care system with those of Canada, England, and France, all of whom come out better, but who is to say how accurate it is? Just because we don’t hear any complaints doesn’t mean there aren’t any, and I know from family experience that Canada has its flaws. However, it’s hard to argue, although surely some will, with the World Health Organization ranking the United States 37th in part due to our infant morality rate and life expectancy, placing us between Costa Rica and Slovenia. If our national basketball team were that bad, sports radio would be on fire with outrage.
Moore meets with people who have gotten sick from their volunteer work at Ground Zero, cleaning up Twin Towers debris and looking for survivors. These people are patriots who have severely damaged their health in the service of their country and only received lip service in exchange from the state and federal government. With many politicians boasting about the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Moore takes these American heroes down to the detention center, reasoning it only fair that they receive health care as good as Al Qaeda gets.
Not surprisingly, they don’t get in, so they enter Cuba and go to a hospital. Moore asks that they be treated just as anyone else would, but considering there are cameras around, it’s likely that they received the best care available, and since we see no other Cuban hospital, there’s nothing to compare. Undercover cameras would have provided a more accurate picture. However with that being said, Moore absolutely should not have been able to find anyone who worked or volunteered at Ground Zero who needed his assistance. That fact is an absolute embarrassment to the nation.
As is the footage of a taxi dumping an old woman on Skid Row when a hospital decided her stay was up, unfortunately not an uncommon practice in Los Angeles. Again, hospitals are businesses, so they have to make money, but can’t a better way be found to treat people more humanely? Was it necessary for civil and criminal lawsuits and over a half million in penalties to get Kaiser to treat people better? Does a dollar really mean so much to some people?
However it’s not all tears and tragedy as Sicko has many humorous moments. An insurance company had agreed to give a young toddler who was losing hearing in both ears only one cochlear implant, but when her father wrote a letter claiming he was going to contact Michael Moore, they were somehow able to do both.
In Sicko, Moore presents his version of the story of the U.S. health care system. Even though every single person does the same, he will be chastised for it because some people have yet to realize that documentaries are op-ed pieces. Is everything presented in the film accurate and true as presented? Who knows, but while you shouldn’t trust everything Moore presents, that same standard should be applied to his detractors. Seek out information on your own and make your own decisions.
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4 Comments
June 24th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
Thank you for devoting some of your blog to this important issue of health care. Please allow me to comment against Mr. Moore’s work. I believe the market failures Sicko addresses are not due to a failed government but to an epidemic of unhealthy lifestyles that cannot be supported economically. Preventable illness comprises 80% of the burden of illness and 90% of all healthcare costs. Preventable illnesses account for eight of the nine leading categories of death. No medicine, surgery or treatment can reverse the damage caused by a lifetime of smoking, poor eating and lack of exercise. By simply increasing treatment that buys time, ignores the inevitable need to align patient’s economic incentives toward healthy living. This is the innovation needed in the economic system of health care, not just more health care.
June 24th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
I am not saying you are wrong, but do you have links to support your statistics?
While preventable illnesses and the genetic luck of the draw are factors, a healthcare system that promoted prevention over treatment and removed the profit margin might very well be models to look at. Would you buy a car from the 37th best automaker in the world?
June 25th, 2007 at 8:43 am
Sicko is another Michael Mooron propaganda story.
Spend a few minutes at freemarketculture and start getting the real story.
July 6th, 2007 at 3:14 am
I’m thankful that I had the opportunity to see this film because it’s a real eye opener. We generally make false assumtions about other countries and their ability to care for their own people. I think it’s part of our conditioning in the United States to declare that all other countries are less advanced than we are. No way countries like Canada, England, France or Cuba could offer the kind of care we have here. Is that right???… In the film, you will see modern medical facilities and medical equipment that is comparable to what we have here. You’ll also notice that greed for financial gains is not a determining factor for the amount of care that is received. Another example was given to show a doctor making a list of house calls. How often does that take place here? It amazes me that there still are places on this Earth where people actually care for their sick and have not lost their humanity in favor of profits. I’ve heard some horror stories where people have died in the parking lots of major hospitals because they had no insurance coverage. My own parents have HMO but they have been refused medical care for pre-existing conditions. Many times they have to call ahead to find out which specific location they are allowed to go to receive care. This insurance dictates which doctors they are allowed to see. Michael Moore did an excellent job in this film to bring attention to these issues. Perhaps, we can learn a few things from our foreign neighbors because they have so much to teach us. I’m going to see this film again and bring several people with me when I go.