Sicko is a timely and rousing call to action
Written: Jul 22 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: The film's first hour is simply harrowing.
Cons: When Moore ventures overseas, the movie begins to falter.
The Bottom Line: Go see it.
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| deepthroat101's Full Review: Sicko |
He's baaack. That incendiary ragamuffin Michael Moore returns to the big screen, and this time, he focuses his attention on the (sorry) state of the U.S. health care system. Whatever your politics, health care is an issue that affects every single American. Regardless of whether you consider Moore a zealous truth-seeker or a bumbling buffoon, he is a man who knows how to make a point. In Sicko, Moore presents a strong case that the United States desperately needs to overhaul its existing health care system.
To help underscore his argument, Moore solicited people's health care horror stories on his website. In the first week alone, he received over 25,000 replies. Although he acknowledges that there are nearly 50 million Americans who have no health insurance at all, Sicko is not about their plight. Instead, Moore sets out to show what potential tragedy awaits those 250 million Americans who think they are covered.
Moore interviews everyday Americans who have been denied necessary and potentially life-saving medical treatment for a variety of reasons. One couple has been forced to move in with their daughter because medical bills have bankrupted them.
One woman was startled to find out that she had been billed for an ambulance ride because it hadn't been "pre-approved" by her insurance company. Apparently, even though she was unconscious, she was required to somehow wake up, call her insurance provider to get the ambulance ride approved, then lapse back into unconsciousness so the paramedics could take her to the hospital. Nuts.
Another women tearfully recounts how her husband was repeatedly refused medical treatments because their insurance provider deemed the procedures "too experimental." Amazingly, these included such "experimental" treatments as a bone marrow transplant. He died shortly thereafter.
These scenes are where Sicko is most effective. It's impossible not to be outraged when ordinary Americans are shamelessly trampled over by HMO's. Moore also interviews ex-industry insiders. They reveal that any claim that the insurance company has to pay is called a 'medical loss.' Insurance companies are in the business of making money, and the more claims they have to pay for, the less profits they make. Employees are given lucrative bonuses based on how many claims they deny. Even a small mistake on a health care application form can result in cancellation of the treatment by the insurance company. As one of the insiders remarks, "You didn’t slip through the crack. They (HMO's) made that crack and are pushing you toward it." Why haven't politicians stood up for these obvious injustices? Moore argues they have been bought and paid for by insurance companies through generous campaign donations.
Interestingly, Moore is absent from the screen for the first forty minutes or so. Instead, he lets the victims and former employees unload their grief and anguish on the audience. To prevent the film from becoming morbid, Moore tosses in some potent humor to keep things fresh. A list of conditions not covered by the average health insurance plan scroll across the screen set to the Star Wars theme, which drew big laughs from the audience where I saw the movie.
Moore also scores points when detractors decry a universal health care system, one favored by virtually every other industrialized country in the world, as the evil "socialized medicine." Apparently this system is akin to the boogeyman, but Moore wisely points out other government-run systems can work just fine. Are "socialized libraries" evil too? What about the police and fire departments? Consider the problems if they were run as for-profit enterprises. Gee, sorry, we'd like to come put out your house fire, but you failed to disclose that you have a gas stove in your home, which voids your coverage. It's not as ridiculous as it sounds.
The second half of the movie features Moore traveling to other countries to compare their free, universal health care systems with that of the United States. Moore goes to France (rated #1 by the World Health Organization, a stark contrast to the #37 position occupied by the U.S.), England, Canada, and yes, even Cuba, to dispel the myths surrounding universal health care.
It's here that Moore opens himself up to criticism. While he tours other countries to advocate pillaging them for ideas on how to transform the U.S. system, he also cheerfully ignores the problems these countries face. Naturally, waiting times for non-emergency care and surgery is at the top of the list. As a Canadian, I could only laugh when Moore interviews other Canadians in a hospital waiting room who say they've been waiting "only 20 minutes" or "about 45 minutes". My experience has been quite different, to say the least. If evidence doesn't support Moore's argument, it's disregarded entirely. Moore also makes no attempt to get opposing viewpoints, which could weaken his argument.
In the grand scheme of things, Sicko is a harrowing piece of filmmaking. Sure, Moore cuts corners on more than one occasion. Even so, his central argument, that the United States health care system is badly broken and needs fixing, is supported by numerous interviews with Americans who have been cruelly denied essential medical care by an industry that continues to rack up record profits. "What have we become?" he asks. The richest country in the world can't take care of its own people. Sicko is a must-see film.
Recommended:
Yes
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