Sicko (Special Edition)
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Movie Reviews of Sicko (Special Edition)
Movie Review: I Feel Sick After Watching -- But in a Good Way!
Summary: 5 Stars
Like all of Michael Moore's films, he's out to expose the bad guy. Scratch that, he's out to answer questions nobody wants to ask about the bad guy. And then everyone scratches their heads wondering why they never asked those questions either. In Bowling for Columbine, Moore questions the American obsession with guns and how they ultimately interacted with disaffected youth. In Fahrenheit 911, Moore questions the nation's sanity in electing George W. Bush and then giving him the mandate for war. And now, with his new film Sicko, Michael Moore tackles the next elephant in the room: the American health care system.
Sure, we've all paid high premiums. We've all paid high deductibles, prescription costs, doctor co-pays, etc -- and some of us even pay out of pocket when we can't afford health insurance. But so what? That's just the way it is, and that's the way health insurance has always been...Right? Wrong, says Moore. Perhaps we've become so accustom to the American system that we accept it as being natural and a necessary evil. After all, we are the richest, most powerful nation in the world. Of course we have the best health insurance money can buy, right? After all, what do my high premiums and deductibles pay for? Surprise, surprise, says Moore. The only thing they pay for is more Insurance Company profits, and less care for you and you're family. But not to fear, says Moore, there actually is another way of managing health care, and several modern, democratic nations do it everyday...and they do it well. Enter stage left - Socialized Health Care (also called Universal Health Care, or National Health Care depending on your political leanings).
Yes, the evil word: Socialized -- Socialist. It's been grilled into us for most of the 20th century. Anything socialized is bad. It naturally leads to communism, economic depravity, and the downfall of man...blah, blah, blah. Well, Michael Moore wisely points out, that we already socialize many institutions: the Fire Department, the Police Department, the Library, the Postal Service, the Public School System, etc. - FREE services that we wouldn't think of paying for out of pocket. FREE services that we liken to liberty itself. Yes, we Americans are practicing Socialists already! Quick, rally the troops! The Red Scare is at our doorstep! Your postman and the librarian are organizing Marxist rallies as we speak!
Ok, hold on. If we already socialize some of the more important, and fundamental services of our society, and we haven't fallen into Chairman Mao's Red Grip, then we can at least begin to examine why we are 37th on the list of top health care nations in the world - just above Slovenia. I'm not kidding! The country that invented the light bulb, saved Europe in WWII, and put a man on the moon comes in 37th...after Slovenia?? How ashamed and disgusted am I? Answer: very.
And so, Michael Moore's record of travesty after travesty of the American health care system rolls on for a clean 113 minutes on the screen. And the results are in:
England: NOBODY pays a cent for even the most expensive health care services and products.
Canada: NOBODY pays.
France: NOBODY pays.
Cuba: NOBODY pays.
Cuba, for goodness sakes! The Evil Empire itself! Michael Moore even went so fare as to take some 911 volunteer workers down to Cuba where they received service and attention they couldn't get in America. 911 volunteers!! So much for rewarding our heroes.
Will this film create a stir in the nation? It better. Will it last? I pray it will, but knowing the American attention span - especially for things that really matter - it's unlikely to last until the 2008 elections when it will really matter. And before anyone goes off saying Michael Moore has set off yet again for another one of his America-bashing tirades he calls "documentary," they need to honestly examine what he's saying in this film. He's not saying America-bad, Europe and Canada-good - he's just stating the obvious: we in the States have got it all wrong, and we're paying with our lives and our health - the only things we truly possess in this world. Isn't that worth a measly $10 at the box office and some political pressure? If not, then I'm moving to France. Take that Freedom Fries!
Movie Review: Yes, it is a MUST SEE
Summary: 5 Stars
Well, I just saw "Sicko." At times I found tears coming to my eyes. If you can see this film and not feel moved to the core of your being by the tragedies shown, and by the good work of those in other countries who helped some of the victims, you are less than human.
Michael Moore did a very good job. As he said, you can't show the 25,000 stories of awful struggles and tragedies with the medical system that he received, in two hours. But he showed enough to remind us clearly why medical bills are the #1 cause of bankruptcies in the US, and how the current system actually can and does kill anyone who does not have the almighty $ to back them. And when it came to the comparison with other systems, it was smart to begin with the most "acceptable", or at least closest, system - Canada - and then examine Britain and then France and then (gasp!) Cuba! Norway's amazing society was left as a "special feature" since it is even further removed from US concepts.
I have lived and worked in Britain, Canada, and the US (last 25 years) so I have experienced all three systems. I had cancer treatment in Britain (many years ago), a daughter born in Canada, and thank the Lord no major medical events in the US. I just don't get it. How is that Americans are so blinded by the LYING propaganda of the insurance companies and the lobbyists and the politicians that they don't SEE what an appallingly inefficient and UNFAIR system they have?
In my experience, although of course individuals are all different, in general Americans are kind and generous. Why is there this blank spot about the meaning of the words "society" and "social?" They come from a root meaning "companion." We are all companions in life's journey. Why is America the only developed country not to feel that this group of traveling companions should ensure some basic level of care for its members? And how can doctors work for insurance companies that reward them financially for denying care? Many must be violating their Hippocratic oath every day.
Another emotion the film provokes is anger. Anger at the evil scumbags who tell so many lies to safeguard their interests, at the politicians who have let themselves become puppets of corporate greedheads instead of responding to the often-expressed wishes of their constituents, and of course at those who see other people's health as the hunting-ground for them to make their multiple millions.
The only thing I found slightly frustrating was his pose as a "typical American," incredulous at the benefits those in other societies enjoy. I suppose he had to do that to keep the dialog alive, but surely he must have known beforehand how the other systems worked; that's why he was moved to make "Sicko" and how he was able to plan it. Still, I suppose if you are saying to a Frenchwoman "So everyone has a minimum of five weeks paid vacation" and she just says "that's right" it has less impact from the filmic point of view.
He also could have done more to answer the objection "But it will cost a fortune in taxes." Indirectly, he did so by showing the comfortable lifestyle of a typical French middle-class family, who didn't have an enormous income but clearly lived well and comfortably, obviously not suffering from any tax hit, and clearly with much less stress than their US counterparts. However, a main answer is of course that the gigantic insurance bureaucracy wastes about a third of all the dollars spent on health care. In single-payer national systems this goes down to a tiny fraction. It's not a question of replacing private paperwork by "government" paperwork. The paperwork GOES AWAY! No policies, no EOBs, no bills, no co-pays, no deductibles. And over and above the system cost, you also get rid of the immense cost in individuals' time and energy dealing with all that nonsense. It's so ironic that the naysayers try to scare us with "bureaucracy!"
Then also, from the tax point of view, the naysayers forget that employers no longer have to pay those huge premiums for their employees. That money is now available to be paid to the employees and will more than cover any increase in individual taxes needed for the less wasteful national system. The "cost" thing is a non-issue.
Movie Review: SiCKO
Summary: 5 Stars
To call Michael Moore a divisive figure would be putting it extremely mildly. Even someone like me, who quite often agrees with many of his points, at times gets tired of the contemptuous way he often presents said points. At the same time, I find it interesting how people who disagree with him often do exactly what they accuse him of: ignoring or hiding the facts. Instead of addressing his points they'll make remarks about his appearance, or talk about his "followers" or accuse him of being anti-American. Or my favorite: they'll accuse him of being hypocritical because he's wealthy (which I find interesting because, as far as I know, he's never said there's anything wrong with being wealthy; he seems to disapprove of ultimate wealth at all costs because that invariably leaves a portion of the population in a perpetual state of poverty (alliteration rules).
I think SiCKO is quite possibly Moore's greatest achievement yet. I've appreciated his self-appointed mission since I first had to study Roger & Me in college. And more so than any movie in history, Fahrenheit 9/11 made documentaries popular and relevant to the general population. But SiCKO is the first time that we get the impression that he actually cares more about the people that he supposedly represents than he does about the cause du jour that he's championing. He also does an excellent job of putting faces on this particular epidemic. It is one thing to rationalize private health care when one is just looking at numbers and statistics. It is something else entirely when you have to enter the lives of the people who have to live with their particular ailment.
To be sure, Moore continues to use his most common magic trick of asking you to focus on what is in his right hand while ignoring what's in his left: he never talks about the taxes paid by people in socialized health care systems; for all we know, the doctor in London that he interviews might be the wealthiest practitioner in all of the United Kingdom; and I don't care how he tries to make it look, I can't imagine that there is a large percentage of people who would rather go to a hospital in Cuba than they would one in the United States.
That being said, there are many facts that he presents that cannot be denied, no matter how strong a critic of Moore one is:
- in the nations he visits, if you're sick, you WILL have access to a doctor for virtually no out of pocket cost;
- child mortality rates in the United States ARE higher than those in Cuba.
- the United States government HAS ignored the health conditions that have developed in September 11 volunteer workers.
Moore's most significant point in SiCKO is this: in a land where health care is private, the goal is not to actually help people but to make a profit. Thus there is significant incentive for insurance companies, the pharmaceutical industry, lobbyists and Congressmen to turn away those in need (or make it extremely expensive to get help) rather than spend the money to assist them. While many politicians continue to preach the evil of socialized health care, the fact is that it works in other nations. And, as he points out, why is this such an issue when these same politicians seem to have absolutely no problem whatsoever with socialized police systems, fire departments, postal services and public education?
In the film, one of the Americans living in France echoes a line from V for Vendetta (Two-Disc Special Edition): France has the number one health care system in the world (as ranked by the World Health Organization) because there the government is afraid of its people. The United States is able to get away with being the only industrialized nation in the world without universal health care because here, people are afraid of the government. Things are likely to remain stagnant until that changes.
Movie Review: The Awful Truth About Our Health Care System
Summary: 5 Stars
Leave it to cinematic muckraker and agent provocateur Michael Moore to stir up the pot again. For the third time in less than five years, this renegade has made it his business to take on the powers-that-be on celluloid. In 2002, it was the gun lobby with BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE; in 2004, it was the Bush cabal in FAHRENHEIT 9/11. And now with SICKO, he takes on the issue of health insurance, or lack thereof, in America.
As Moore himself says at the outset, SICKO isn't necessarily about the fifty million Americans who have no health insurance to begin with. It is about all the rest of us who do, and who are of the belief that our health insurance carriers will cover the cost of needed drugs or operations, come what may. But the awful truth about health insurers in particular, and the health care system in general, is that they can deny a claim for any asinine reason to maximize profits. In essence, this means that every single one of us might be just one illness or one rejected claim away either from financial destitution or, at the very worst, Death itself. And as always, Moore sardonically goes up against the HMO/pharmaceutical bureaucracy that not only allows this to happen, but also has every elected official in Washington in their pocket so as to make doubly sure that universal health care never becomes a reality in America--brainwashing them, and the American people at large, into thinking of such a system as "socialized medicine", one step removed from a Commie-like bureaucracy.
But piece by piece, Moore shows us the inherent fallacy of such a notion. First, he shows us a couple of dozen ordinary Americans hit hard by HMOs who will not approve for needed treatment or operations, thus resulting either in bankruptcy or death. Then he shows how "socialized medicine" works in Canada, England, and France--quite well, thank you very much: high rates of healthy people; low infant mortality; people who live quite well off; and doctors who don't have to worry about an HMO approving or turning down potentially life-saving treatment, they just DO IT. What does that say about America, which ranked at #37 on the World Health Organization's list of best health care in the world--just barely ahead of provincial Slovenia?!
Then, to add insult to injury (no pun intended), Moore takes several emergency workers who were at Ground Zero on 9/11 to receive treatment outside the U.S., after these workers were told that the treatment they needed either couldn't be done or wouldn't be paid for by the powers-that-be. And where do they all go? Cuba--a nation we've had an embargo against since October 1962; a nation whose ruler generations of Americans have learned to despise with every fiber of their being! And what kind of treatment do these 9/11 heroes get? The best! How can one NOT be outraged by the fact that one of the last remaining bastions of the Red Menace can give Americans better health care than their own government?!
SICKO, like almost everything Moore has ever done, be it movies or books, has been attacked by the HMO/pharmaceutical complex, whose lobbying power in Washington is exceeded only by the dreaded military/industrial complex. If it had been only one or two HMO horror stories that made the news in the last twenty years, they might have had a legitimate beef. But Moore has given us dozens here; and we know of thousands of others--and this includes hospitals dumping indigent patients on L.A.'s Skid Row. This state of affairs should not be happening here in America, but it is, thanks to the HMOs and the pharmaceutical giants.
Yes, what Michael Moore advocates--a universal health care system, presumably funded out of a percentage of our taxes--would mean the collapse of the medical bureaucracy. But unless we have such a system in place that puts decisions of life and death in the hands of doctors and not political lackeys, being the richest country in the world as we are is going to be negated by us having the worst human rights record in the world. Health care cannot and should not be a privilege. As SICKO and its creator so eloquently state, it should be a human RIGHT!
Movie Review: You Won't Get It Till You Watch This Film All The Way Through
Summary: 5 Stars
If you are a person of deep moral cowardice, what you need to do to protect yourself during this film is to ignore the huge truths being talked about and focus on the films flaws. If you do that, you will be able to sleep at night and rationalize away what you are doing to your fellow citizen, which you so desperately need to do.
(Okay, okay, you're a good guy or gal and the above would never, ever apply to you. Excuse me, you know, I get all worked up over nothing. In fact, if you want, just to make amends, I'll help you make up criticisms of this film in order to justify your owning four cars while letting people die in the getter, because we all know that creating an economic inconvenience to you is really the worst thing that could ever happen for humankind, right?)
Anyway, force yourself to watch this film, all of it. (No fair chickening out by fast-forwarding to the flawed parts and only focusing on those. That's cheating. This feels like trying to force-feed a pill to a dog that doesn't get what medicine is. People just can't stare it in the face without chickening out and ducking out on the true implications of this film.)
Moore is simply sick of this: We are watching each other die in the gutter as we cling to our SUVs. The whole point of the film is to show that an additional one percent tax on our GDP to get medical care to everyone won't bankrupt you. By the way, I went to London last year, for the only time in my life, and, in case you didn't know it, millionaires and billionaires get along very, very well, even with a big welfare state. Surprise! You can still be very rich and still let your fellow citizens go to the doctor. In fact, the average household I saw in London was just way wealthier in terms of all the education, health care and housing than most of us. The whole four days I was there, I didn't see a single person living in the street, and I was not panhandled once. (See Union Square in San Francisco for a study in contrast.)
So give in and see the film and just pray to your God for strength, or whatever it takes, to just get over your selfishness long enough to see what we're permitting to happen.
Oh, how do I know all this? I ended up on permanent disability. How? No access to health care. So now, instead of paying for a few doctors appointments now and then, the government has to pay all of my bills all year. Wow, good going. That was some deep money saving there. Here's my prediction, if you take Moore's advice, what you'll find is that you save money.
For instance, a person who gets no health care until they have need of an emergency room, racks up ten times the bills as the average person who is insured. In my case, society thought it could be slick by denying me routine access to good doctors. Society thought it could be slick by not allowing me any sick days. It's the old corporate CEO mentality of just getting through this quarterly statement and making the books look good and getting a bonus, leaving the real bills for later folks to pay, and leaving the real disaster to the next CEO, and getting out in time to get another bonus before dumping the whole mess on everyone else.
Trust me, the government could have saved countless dollars by letting me have health care and sick days off. In fact, we already have a weird universal health care system that runs this way: Don't serve the poor till they go to the emergency room. Let the poor person run up a half-million dollar bill they can never pay. Turn around, (the hospitals do this), and then hit the state up for the money anyway. So we just go ahead and sneak that money in the back door through the state and county hospital reimbursement plans anyhow. So why not just pay for the guy to see a doctor a few times and get basic care for a few hundred bucks, rather than end up paying a half-million dollars to treat someone who can now probably never recover.
Okay, all you greedy Orange County people, time to face up to it. Sit down and watch the monster your free-market doctrines have created.
Mel C. Thompson.