Sicko (Special Edition)
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Movie Reviews of Sicko (Special Edition)
Movie Review: This movie tied it all together for me
Summary: 5 Stars
I am in the health care industry. I have 2 master's degrees in the health services field. I knew every basic concept that was covered in this film, but Moore tied it all together to create a big and basic picture: What's good for the bottom line is never good for anyone but those at the top.
I work in community health. We are the safety net responsible for taking care of some of the 45 million uninsured in this country, and I am disheartened and infuriated that every day we have to try to do more and more with fewer resources, resulting in the inability to provide high-quality care and work with people to keep them healthy.
I am still surpised when I read that people think this movie is funny. This movie is anything but funny. It should outrage people enough to DEMAND the basic human right of coverage for health care from our government and make them realize that a for-profit privatized system in the mess that is corporate America is NOT the way to ensure a healthy, productive, able, dignified, and heaven forbid, happy nation. I was appalled when I came to the conclusion that in the U.S., we are made to feel bad or inadequate if we want to be healthy, less stressed out, work less, take time for ourselves, and take care of ourselves and our families. We're always told that "other people have it much worse", but what about the fact that other people have it much better? Have we arrived at total complacency and apathy in the U.S.? Why don't the masses believe that we deserve better and act on it? What the hell happened to Democracy and why has it become so inaccessible and barrier-ridden to so many?
Don't answer that, I already know...it's tough to spend money on preventive health and public education when you've got countries to invade and other countries to "protect" yourself against, all while trying to make more, more and more money. Maybe if we weren't so easily fooled into believing that we need to protect ourselves and instead could just focus on not antagonizing other nations to nuke us, and if we could understand that not all foreign interaction must result in more cash for us, we could get our priorities straight. The British gentleman who is a former government authority (can't remember his name as I was already all spun up at this point of the movie) had it right: When a government keeps its people uneducated, unhealthy and afraid, the people therefore cannot be empowered to act in order to do what's right for them.
Bravo to Michael Moore, I admire the detailed homework and artful editing he put into this movie. Sicko is his best yet, and for me, it has affected my life because I now understand that it's important to NOT buy into the "Spoiled Americans Think They're Entitled To Everything" B.S. The time has come to demand more, hold our government and one another accountable, and freakin' GROW UP as a nation.
The other option is to move and take my knowledge, skills and talents to some other country who will appreciate it. Believe me, I am seriously considering it, as I cease to be an enagaged staff member. America will fail to retain me due to the perception that I am not valued, cannot rely on the country's HR department to provide me with adequate health coverage and other life benefits, and do not believe in the Mission, Vision or Values being driven by this nation's CEO.
Movie Review: Just try not to get in sick in America ...
Summary: 5 Stars
You would have to be a pretty hard heart-hearted person and stubborn to boot, if you couldn't watch Michael Moore's documentary `Sicko' and not be a concerned, troubled or a little worried.
It's interesting to say the least, that of the few documentaries that Moore has done, this one has taken the least amount of flack, but also getting the smallest amount of press. I guess the message is in the movie, and you should come away with it if any of your humanity is still intact when it's all said and done. I'm sure the health-care industry can't wait for this film to just `go away' and drift quietly into the background and dusty used DVD bins.
What can be said though of all the folks being dumped in downtown Los Angeles? Some might say: "Well, Moore didn't show that it probably happens in other countries and it's not the hospitals problem to house them."
Living in Los Angeles, I can tell you, that the `patient-dumping' issue has been widely reported over the media for the last few years and has been looked at as incredibly embarrassing and absolutely the wrong solution for indigent patients. So if other Americans know that it's wrong, then it doesn't really matter who else is doing it as it should be obvious that `patient-dumping' probably happens in a lot of places, not just the United States. But maybe it doesn't? Maybe as well as a better health-care alternative, they also take care of their homeless as well? I can safely say that Social Workers `do' take care of the indigent patients before they leave the hospital and make sure they're not going to "heal up" on the streets with freshly bandaged wounds.
But as a Veteran, I guess the worst part was the fact that 9-11 Rescue Workers have been so sorely neglected and allowed to fall through the cracks as Moore clearly evinced, and which was something that was without protestation. Doesn't that bother every other person who watched this film? I'm absolutely sure that it did. The fact that they went and received more exhaustive and complete care from a country that is 1) off-limits 2) lower on the list of `countries with the best health-care' than the US and 3) a country with very little to no resources, is a condemning statement on a completely intolerable situation.
But, we will tolerate won't we? No one will rise up and protest and say that it's wrong, will they? Everybody's too busy with their low-riders, vacationing on a yacht, getting to work for their midnight shift, too wrapped up in their own lives to worry about `all these other people' who need health-care and a better system of long-term care.
I read a few of the negative reviews on this film as well, out of curiosity, just to see what people were saying. The bulk of these people could seemingly benefit from some remedial education as they obviously have problems articulating complete sentences, shaping basic grammar and punctuation and a lack of an ability to crystallize their own ideas. It's a shame that we live in a country where people who aren't even mediocre at best, can seemingly try to shout down, detract, spew garbage and complete bombast while not even having a grasp of the concepts that they're trying to flag-wave about, let alone tear down.
Maybe some intelligence first, might be a sound idea, before trying to blast others with a wet rag.
Movie Review: Moore Ignites a Sharp Exposé on the Dysfunctional State of U.S. Health Care
Summary: 5 Stars
It's no secret what a travesty privatized health care has become in this country, but leave it to political firebrand and social provocateur Michael Moore to present our dismal situation with his unique combination of passion and insouciance in this compelling 2007 documentary. Coupled with his innate showmanship, his dexterity in making his viewpoint seem like the logical one is what makes his films resonate in ways that make more fair-minded filmmakers pallid by comparison. This time, his target is almost too easy, that the entire health care industry needs to be overhauled. In order to prepare for his film, Moore made an open online plea to Americans to share their own health-care horror stories, and in turn, he received over 25,000 e-mails.
The film's first half dives into the most egregious cases of those who paid their insurance premiums to feel secure about their medical coverage only to discover that their insurance companies abandon them when they needed them the most. Several of these accounts are inevitably heartbreaking, and Moore is wise to let those victimized by the system speak for themselves without his prodding. The capper is the 1996 Congressional testimony of Dr. Linda Peeno, a former medical examiner for Humana, who confesses that her top priority was to save the company money and how in turn, the company rewarded bonuses to examiners who denied the most number of claims. The second half shows Moore in more familiar form as he acerbically visits Canada, Great Britain, France, and Cuba, all countries where free health care is available.
The international section is where Moore makes his most pointed jabs in showing how socialized medicine has worked almost too effortlessly elsewhere. Although he does not divulge the substantial amount of government funding needed to subsidize these programs, Moore successfully makes the intentional oversight beside the point, as these nations simply emphasize how dysfunctional our HMO system has become. Former Member of Parliament Tony Benn is particularly insightful in explaining the rationale behind free medical care in the U.K. and how it was borne out of the ongoing bombings going on during WWII. The most interesting and controversial sequence is when Moore takes a group of perpetually ill 9/11 volunteers by boat first to Guantanamo Bay to see if they can receive the same medical treatment being received by the terrorists imprisoned there and then to Havana to get the health care they have been denied in this country.
The filmmaker somehow manages the precarious balance between funny and poignant throughout the film. He, however, is not without his self-aggrandizing moments, for example, in taking the occasional potshot at Bush, which while funny, is not terribly relevant here. What is pertinent is a taped conversation in 1971 between Nixon and his chief aide John Ehrlichman about passing legislation which would give birth to the current, profit-seeking concept of HMOs. Moore couldn't help himself by mentioning an anonymous $12,000 check to the Webmaster of an anti-Moore site, who could not afford his wife's mounting medical bills. Naturally, the anonymous donor was Moore. Regardless, he hits his valid points about the U.S. health care system hard and with both emotional precision and idiosyncratic finesse. For that alone, this film is essential viewing.
Movie Review: Don't Shoot the Messenger
Summary: 5 Stars
EDIT: I was amazed that there were no reviews of this powerful work by Michael Moore (the reviews didn't show on my screen). This is informative and personal and will affect every person in the US who thinks that their healthcare is adequate.
The system is in the hands of the insurers and pharmaceutical companies, and so is your health and financial security. The majority of bankruptcies declared last year were from medical debt after insurance paid for a portion of the bill.
I now will tell you my personal experience over the past 12 months rather than using Moore's examples.
(1) A family member got a super-bug and was hospitalized after two rounds of meds ($800), but his insurance didn't begin until $1801. Almost $3000 out-of-pocket for one illness is more than a month's salary for a lot of people.
(2) A family member got meningitis, then had a hole in his heart repaired through an artery. The former was on an outpatient basis (10 days of co-pays), and the total cost was in excess of $18,000, of which state employee health insurance paid 90%, leaving co-pays, meds and 10%, or $2000+ out-of-pocket for one mosquito bite. The heart operation brought another $2500 out-of-pocket two months later. That's $4500+, not including the cost of medications, and loss of wages - having run out of sick days by then.
(3) Our grandchild was having seizures of undetermined origin, so a sleep lab was ordered. The insurer rejected the hospital a block from their home (not on their approved list), and the approved one was remodeling their lab, so it would be at least a month. They offered 70% coverage after the co-pay. A child with seizures should not have to wait, so the parents had to pay cash up front($800) plus meds and co-pay. Her tonsils were obstructing her breathing (up to 50 seconds at a time), so they had to drag the child across town to the approved hospital for the tonsillectomy and another 10% of the bill plus co-pay and meds. If this is the answer, the total will be in excess of $3000 out-of-pocket - with insurance, and loss of pay since again, sick days have been used up caring for a child with seizures.
(4) Today, a friend's baby was diagnosed with infant botulism. To receive the meds, the insurance company must approve and pay a whopping $45,000 up front, plus a hospital stay in excess of $55,000. Why the high cost? Botulism meds have been recategorized as orphan drugs! The family is hoping that the insurance company will approve the treatments and the meds will arrive in time.
These families haven't gone under because we paid their bills. Are you ready to shoulder these outrageous bills for your family and friends? How long will it be before you are the one with the unexpected expense? Will you have to delay retirement because your husband died on the operating table and insurance didn't pay for the $70,000 cost above their approved amount (this happened to a friend of ours who is still working at age 71).
If I have scared you into thinking about this, watch Moore's interviews, then pass the DVD around. Our system is broken and Moore is only the messenger.
You can tell the greatness of a nation by the way they treat their most vulnerable.
Movie Review: Clear your mind of your political opinion of Michael Moore and see what is really happening to us
Summary: 5 Stars
I hadnt seen this movie yet and I watched an interview with Wendell Potter; the author of Deadly Spin. He apologized to Michael Moore for killing this movie and discrediting him. Wendell Potter was a PR executive with Cigna Insurance and prior with Humana. He had enough, he had to speak out. In doing so, he explained how an insurance person had seen Sicko at the Cannes Film Festival and it received a standing ovation. The insurance industry person got together with all of the others and sald this movie would mobilize the American public against the purely for profit insurance industry and that they had to find a way to discredit Michael Moore as just a left wing lunatic. Well, unfortunately they successded and this movie wasn't taken as serious as it should.
Because of this, I decided to purchase Sicko. What a fabulous movie. It wasn't as political as I expected, it showed how other oountries deal with healthcare. It shows how civilized countries treat their people. Are there a few more taxes, yes (maybe, I checked and some countries are about the same as us)
The most amazing thing to me was the "spin" that came out about the Cuba scene was that he was praising Castro or something. It was far from that. He was taking 911 volunteers who cannot receive proper healthcare to find a place where we give the best healthcare -Guantanimo Bay detainees. When they wouldn't let him in, he docked his boat in Havana and these heros of 911 were given medical treatment and medication. It was just amazing. The Cuban opinion is that you need a healthy country to thrive.
I'm not advocating Cuba, it was just a very enlightening scene.
The other was the man here who had to make a choice as to which finger he wanted sewn back on from an accident because he couldn't afford both. He had to only choose one. How sad, we THREW HIS FINGER AWAY,when a doctor could easily attach it but he didn't have the $60,000 to do so. In Europe, the same situation happened to an individual and his hand is fully functional with ALL fingers reattached.
I find this to be absolutely third world. We are the USA and we have worst treatment of our people than ANY civilized country.
Let's think of this realistically, if my company and I didn't have to pay for our healthcare insurance, I could have that money towards the additional tax that would be imposed, net loss of zero and I may have no deductables, copays etc. If our healthcare was non profit, the BILLIONS paid out in bonuses and payments etc wouldn't happen. There would be Trillions of dollars available for good healthcare if the industry was non profit. Whether government run or privately run but non-profit, we could have great healthcare for the amounts of the profits in that industry.
Wake up everyone, the money we pay isn't for better healthcare, it's for mansions, yachts and more for the insurance industry.
Please take time to see this movie, and read Wendell Potter's book "Deadly Spin". They will open your eyes to what's really going on in our country and the shift of wealth to the wealthiest people.
I would like to see them reintroduce this movie publically with an acknowledement from Wendell Potter.