The crucial difference between Sicko, Michael Moore's newest film and the rest of his cinema is the fact that the subject is less controversial. Pretty much everyone who is not a slobbering Republican party hack acknowledges that there are major problems with the American healthcare system, and according to polls a clear majority of Americans think the Democrats have the best plan-universal coverage for everyone. This means that his material is not as offensive or unreasonable as usual though I have no doubt that a lot, though probably not a majority, of conservatives will find something to be offended by.
As my pal Kristen Gorlitz aptly stated, judging a movie like this' worth is somewhat tempered by the fact that the movie is inherently dated to the period it was made in. Will anyone other than film students want to watch this movie thirty years from now? Probably not, but I can't deny that it's an extremely cogent and generally reasonable argument as to why American needs socialized medicine.
Moore spends most of the first part of the movie demonstrating horror stories about healthcare in America. The startling is that so many of these happen to people are who insured. My favorite was the woman who knocked unconscious in car accident, but whose insurance company refused to pay for her ambulance ride to the hospital. Why? She failed to have the ambulance trip pre-approved, although that's kind of hard to do when you are unconscious. There are others with more catastrophic consequences. A couple with insurance has to sell their house and move in with their daughter, when the husband has three heart attacks and the wife gets cancer. Even though they are insured, the co-pays and deductibles are so high they can't pay them and the rent at the same time. He also shares and astonishing stastic that I later learned was accurate: 18,000 Americans die each year because they don't have healthcare.
Moore then investigates the universal healthcare of Canada, Britain and France, and finds that, not surprisingly, the people who live in those countries really like their coverage, because...it's for free! And contrary to what the health lobby will tell you, it's really good, too.
So far, so good, but its here that Moore starts to overplay his hand. My friend Magali, who is from France and is doing an internship at St. Mary's hospital, told me that she was glad that France has universal coverage, but that the government is having trouble paying for it, as there are more old than young in the country. Moore presents France as some kind of paradise, where everyone loves each other and there are no problems, at all. Things get worse when Moore takes some uninsured 9/11 veterans to Cuba, which also has universal healthcare. While Cuba undoubtedly has a better healthcare system than the US, the average American's standard of living is so much better than the average Cuban the comparison somewhat muted, especially when Moore fails to come down on Fidel Castro. I am certain that people of Cuba are no better or worse than any other nation, but their government, is well, a dictatorship, and a really bad one that. Why didn't Moore point this out?
Still, Sicko will play a positive roll in the national dialogue, which much needs to comes to grips that there are basically no real alternatives to the healthcare crisis other than socialized medicine. I know a guy who once had a minor stroke, paralyzing one side of his face, but didn't go the hospital because he was uninsured. I will be on my father's health coverage until next May, and if by then I don't have a job with benefits, I will be in real trouble if I get another infection, which will, of course, make finding a job (or doing much of anything even harder). Opponents argue that universal care means more inefficiency and longer wait times, but studies have shown that's only true for elective or non-essential procedures. I had a stroke in Britain; I could go to the hospital immediately and not worry about my mortgage or putting my (hypothetical) kids through college.
Although Moore paints overly rosy picture of some other countries solutions to the problem, he dead right about one thing: it is my right to be has healthy as I can be. It is my obligation to work and pay into the system. But if I am having trouble finding work, or work with benefits (as I am now in this horrid Michigan economy) the people who are doing well have an obligation to help the people who are doing their best, but still cannot make enough to pay the astronomical insurance rates. It's not a free ride, as everyone pays in, but simply the right thing to do.
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Here's an article that points out that the movie is basically accurate:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/06/28/sicko.fact.check/index.html#
Sicko (2007)