Sicko
July 7, 2007
Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 123 min Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Michael Moore is an excellent filmmaker, but I really don’t like his politics. As such, I’ve skipped most of his movies as they would just end up pissing me off, but I decided to give Sicko a chance. While his extreme left bias is on full display he does manage tell a convincing story about the U.S.healthcare industry that will make you give some thought to what he has to say.
The main point of the movie is simple. The U.S. is the only major country in the world without socialized healthcare, and our system is corrupt beyond repair and should be replaced. If you’ve ever had to deal with a claim that was rejected by your provider, you’re likely to agree with him on this point. I myself fall into this category, having had routine stuff rejected at first and covered only when I pitched abitchfest on the phone and in letters to the insurer. Like most other Americans I just figured this was the way it was, so you work with the system and get things taken care of as best you can.
Sure, we all know that Canada has socialized medicine, but we also hear that it takes a year to get a simple MRI and that the waiting lists for getting other types of exams are just as long. Moore’s contention is that this info is false, feed to us by our elected politicians at the behest of thehealthcare industry. He does a very good job of showing this as fact simply by giving us the astounding dollar figures that are given to these politicians by the industry. There’s also the little known fact that there are FOUR lobbyist in Washington for each member of Congress. Insurers are public companies designed to make money, and a government run system would put them out of business or at the least drastically reduce their profits so it makes sense that they would have enough manpower on the Hill for 24/7 coverage of each and every elected official.
To tackle the idea of huge waiting lists Moore heads to Canada and visits clinics and hospitals, and while they don’t look as nice as some of the ones around here, there is no evidence of huge lines and unhappy citizens. He interviews several, and the feeling you get is that while there’s always someone who will complain that the overall feeling is one of satisfaction with their system.
Moore also heads to England and visits a pharmacy and hospital, where the drugs cost $10 regardless of type and amount and the visits are free. Heck, they even reimburse you for the expense of getting to the hospital. France? You know, the people we’re supposed to hate? Freehealthcare is just the beginning… the system there even provides new mothers with a nanny (who apparently like to wear really really tight jeans) a couple days a week to help out with the adjustment of having a newborn in the house.
Taxes. Yeah, all of these socialized systems are paid for with taxes and Moore lightly tackles this subject as well. His method of showing this isn’t an issue is to pick out a middle class family and let us tour their house. The couple in France both work and together bring in $96K per year. They live in a very nice place, have a couple of cars and travel quite a bit thanks to the mandatory 5 weeks off they get for vacation every year. What Moore doesn’t show us is an example of a family that doesn’t manage to pull this off, and you know there had to be plenty of examples available to him. Just look at the news when it comes to France and you’ll notice the youth (college age) are rioting in the streets on a regular basis complaining about how tight the job market is and how it sucks to be them. Oh to be in college again.
In England Moore interviews a doctor who makes around $100K per year as a government employee and still manages to drive an Audi A8 and living in a million dollar home. Those numbers don’t quite add up though, so I’m guessing his wife works or he has other sources of income on the side.
Then again, the point of these examples is to show how people with normal incomes can do quite well for themselves when they don’t have to pay medical expenses directly from their own pockets. How much do you pay in insurance for your family? Add the cost for drugs into that.. now, add that number to your salary..mmmm.. I’m starting to see his point.
But socialization is evil! We all know that, we were taught it in our public schools that is run by our government.. wait a sec.. our school system is socialized education! The fire department? Yep, socialized. Police? Yep. Think about your community and you’ll see that we already have many socialized institutions and while we bitch and moan about them (except the fire department, nobody wants to complain about them) they get the job done in most cases.
Moore emphasizes the negative parts of our system by showing example after example on how it’s failed people, and doesn’t show a single case where it’s been a positive in someones life. I’m sure he could have found examples of people who were happy with their insurer, but as I type this and try to think of someone I know who could tell me “yep, love those guys, happy to give them money every month” I’m drawing a blank.
Maybe Moore is right, maybe we should consider switching our system out to something closer to what Canada and England does. Damn him for making me think!
Seen it? How many stars do you give it?
(1 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
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Agree with the review. I’m pretty sure that he didn’t show a typical European family ( I will double check, and if that is the case, I’m moving there soon!). But the reality of the health care system in the US, it is really sad. But I can’t see a way to fix it soon, too much money involved. The part of Nixon made me particularly angry.