Sicko Review
by [email protected] (dnb AT dca DOT net)July 18th, 2007
SICKO
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2007 David N. Butterworth
***1/2 (out of ****)
Canadians have it. So do the British. And the French. Heck, even the Cubans are in on the deal! Not so the Americans. The United States of America, the richest country in the western world, is also the *only* country in the western world not to enjoy a universal healthcare system, a system of socialist medicine wherein everybody, rich or poor, black of white, Catholic or Jew, is not only entitled to but guaranteed medical care at little or no cost.
Michael MooreâeTMs new film "Sicko" asks the question "why?"
As with his previous films "Fahrenheit 9/11" (in which Moore assaults the Bush Administration in light of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, DC), "Bowling for Columbine" (gun control concerns), and "Roger & Me" (General MotorsâeTM destruction of Flint, Michigan), the burly rabble rouser picks his political hot potato, slices it deftly down the middle, butters it up, and fills it with a lot of tasty treats.
The subject is less the high cost of U.S. healthcare and more how the big insurance companies and HMOs--Cigna, Aetna, Kaiser Permanente, Humana, etc.--are profiting hand over fist by arbitrarily denying medical claims. Former HMO employees share their sicko stories, as well as company secrets, while seriously ill subscribers are denied payment of hospital bills, physician services, and/or prescription drugs for reasons ranging from "pre-existing condition" to "treatment considered experimental" to "too young to have cancer." Some of these denied claims inevitably result in tragedy: MooreâeTMs "open letter" solicitation for stories of medical malpractice as befits HMOs generated more than its fair share of ammunition, incendiary material from which the filmmaker built his case.
MooreâeTMs films have always been strongly one-sided, of course, and "Sicko" is more so than most. Not one person stands up and defends the current regime.
Keenly researched, with oodles of background information ("when did HMOs first come into play?" for example), "Sicko" is an impassioned plea for change and Moore has never been more in control of his medium, from interviews with victims, to footage of healthcare industry professionals, lobbyists, and money-grubbing politicians, to a typically absurd stunt in which Moore and a handful of 9/11 rescue workers with chronic respiratory problems sail to Cuba to demand equal medical treatment (having learned that Guantanamo detainees are being provided with the very best the U.S. has to offer!). If a relatively poor country like Cuba, with few vital resources, can provide quality healthcare to its citizenry at no cost to the individual then why canâeTMt the good old US of A?
The central theme of the film is that countries with such humanitarian aid systems at their core are more focused on helping their countrymen than making money. The guerilla filmmaker neatly substantiates this belief by including security-cam footage of a hospital patient unable to pay her bill being unceremoniously dumped--while still clad in her flimsy hospital gown--on the steps of a California mission.
Say what you will about Michael Moore (I personally think he could benefit from a wardrobe wrangler), his latest film puts an interesting slant on Lady LibertyâeTMs famous "give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," as anyone who has spent countless--and ultimately fruitless--hours completing, submitting, and pursuing medical claim forms will solemnly attest.
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David N. Butterworth
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Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
