Let me begin this review with a confession. I absolutely love documentaries. I know i’m in the minority there, but I find them interesting, informative, and entertaining at the same time. To date my favorite Michael Moore film has been ‘Bowling for Columbine‘. I felt Farenheit 9/11 was interesting, but ultimately a bit on the sensationalist side. This is one of my major reservations with Michael Moore. He can create a documentary that’s just as thought provoking and interesting WITHOUT all of the stunts he pulls. For example, accosting members of the congress with enlistment papers for the war.
Sicko contains yet another such publicity stunt. This time he takes US 9/11 volunteers to Cuba to receive medical treatment. This was the only moment of the film that i felt was extraneous and unnecessary. The rest of the film is a rather moving collection of Americans who the private health industry has completely failed. Let me be frank. I feel that our private health industry is a fucking joke. I myself have insurance with one of the large insurance companies and i’m constantly surprised at all the new things i have to pay for every year, that i didn’t have to pay for the year before. Things like x-rays, MRI’s, physical therapy consultation, etc, etc. It’s come to the point where the only thing truly covered by insurance are routine checkups with your primary physician. And i’m actually in pretty good shape! I exercise at least 3 or 4 times a week and at least make an attempt at eating well and maintaining my weight. Much better than the vast majority of Americans who are busy inhaling crispy creme donuts and do nothing but spend money and eat.
The point of the film is that we can do much better for our citizens. This is an idea i heartily agree with. Currently we spend close to $500 billion a year on our military. The next highest spending nation is China (who by the way has universal health insurance) at $85 billion. That means there is a $415 BILLION discrepancy. Why??? Because of the privatization of industry. Our military industrial complex has grown to the point where it is increasingly difficult to spend less on the military. For example. The B52 bomber has a piece built in every state in the US. If we scrapped that program that’s many thousands of people out of jobs. Not even the bluest democrat would do that. Think about it this way. United Health Group has a market cap of roughly $150 billion dollars. This is a health company that does business in the US only. Mastercard (different industry but it’s GLOBAL) actually has a smaller market cap. Private industry which is supposed to bring better quality and value has instead made everything more expensive and given us LESS coverage. This is why he compares our health industry with Britain, France, Canada, and even Cuba. We all hear the arguments against Universal Healthcare. You’d wait longer, get worse treatment, and pay ridiculous taxes. He does a passable job of covering these arguments, but I would have liked more information.
Ultimately this is a great film for anyone who’s interested in health care, and to be honest, every American should be. Watch this movie and take the blinders off your eyes. Or…. you could just hope you never get sick.
Posted on March 8th, 2008 by phaedrus
Filed under: movies
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