Movie Review: Sicko

Just finished watching Michael Moore's Sicko. I've been pissed off about health care ever since I had Thanksgiving dinner with a former Libertarian Party Vice Presidential candidate and this annoying religious conservative guy from Washington state who claimed that he constantly saw Canadians coming over the border to get treatment in the States and both of whom claimed America had "the best health care in the world." Now, I realize that Moore showed only the good side of the Canadian/French health care systems, so I wouldn't mind seeing an objective stat on how long all the unemployed French Muslim North African immigrants that rioted in '05 have to wait for treatment, but by all the objective measures of health outcomes that I've seen (life expectancy, infant mortality, etc.), you'd have to be crazy/retarded/stupid or maybe just blinded by your rich, white, fully insured and thus far medically lucky existence to think America's system is best. And the guy from Washington didn't believe in global warming either. I'm still bitter about that.

In general, I thought this was the best of Moore's movies, with the fewest annoyingly over the top attempts to stop busy important people on the sidewalk and make them look like jerks because they won't drop everything to become a fool on camera--I liked how they scored free treatment in Cuba, but asking for treatment with a bullhorn from a boat offshore of Gitmo was a tad much. And mostly, I really liked how it stressed the broader issue: it's not just about health care, it's about the fact that we're all in this together.

Comments

  1. Aaron12:02 AM

    anyone who thinks america's system is best is either an idiot, or believes that "america" does not include the 43 million people who live here and don't have insurance. that being said, it is generally accepted that the medical expertise and quality of care in america (for those who can afford it) is best. the simple explanation for that is that doctors in america get paid the most, so we attract the best doctors from all over.

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