Sicko Review

To the Point

I begged you to see Fahrenheit 911.  I begged you to see Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth. I am once again begging you to see Sicko because if you aren’t outraged then you cannot possibly be paying attention.

A Closer View

Michael Moore has put together a 113-minute documentary that made me laugh and cry.  It all started about a year ago when Moore asked people to send him their stories about health care. In a week he got thousands and thousands of letters. Although this movie is an indictment  of our health care system it really goes beyond our broken system. It looks at the people who call themselves Americans and should make these people ashamed at themselves.

We learn that the citizens of Canada, England and France, all of which have socialized medicine, live longer than Americans and have a lower incidence of infant mortality than we do.

We learn that Guantanamo detainees have access to better medical care than the soldiers who guard them and better than so many Americans including the firefighters and EMTs who worked at Ground Zero and are now sick. They’ve been let down. That was especially hard to watch because it is heartbreaking.

We learn that the World Health Organization places the United States number 37 – one spot above Slovania in terms of health care.

We learn that in England doctors get paid more when they make people better; get people to stop smoking and give patients preventative care. This is in stark contrast to the U.S. whose health care system does everything it can to not pay for our illnesses and stamp denied much too often.

This movie will put health care reform back in the mainstream after it was shot down during Clinton’s administration.

Jo's Viewpoint

A must see movie - I do realize that there may be some exaggerations and flaws in some of Moore's reporting. If so I am not aware of them however.