ephoenix

Michael Moore’s at it again with his latest documentary, ‘Sicko’, but with Bush almost out of the whitehouse, Moore has little to attack, and this shows in Sicko. Having moved on from the Bush-bashing fest that was Fahrenheit 9/11, Sicko takes on America’s inherently corrupt Healthcare System, focusing on many examples by various HMOs of greed and a general lack of compassion for their customers. This movie however, does a very poor job of addressing the topic.

The problem is not that Moore is wrong in his critique of the healthcare system however, it is indeed a corrupt system that needs massive improvement (even if there is a fair amount of exaggeration in true Michael Moore style). The problem with this movie is aside from a bunch of great tear-jerker stories of people dieing, losing fingers, etc, Sicko shows very little originality, and mostly re-hashes facts that are generally (and unfortunately) known and accepted. Yes, big medical companies will screw over citizens to make money, but so do most of the businesses in the US. Companies exist to make money, period. Companies are not about working for the global good (even if this would be incorrect ideally), they are about doing whatever is legally possible to make as much money as they can. America itself was founded on this principle, capitalism as well. A fantastic movie about the idea of the corporation is “The Corporation”, this movie analyzes corporations as if they were citizens, as Corporations have many of the same legal rights as citizens. This analysis shows quite clearly why HMOs and businesses in general will strive to do whatever is in it’s power to squeeze every penny. Unfortunately for HMOs, their business deals with people’s health, this is not a faulty iPod battery we’re dealing with anymore. If a customer is costing an HMO more than their worth, then it makes business sense to do whatever you can to avoid paying out. I’ll agree personally that this somehow seems morally ‘wrong’, but if you look at the same situation for say, store warranties, you’ll see why this behavior is to be expected. Best Buy will do whatever it can to get out of a warranty it sold you, because once you make a claim, the money you spent on the warranty is no longer 100% profit. As goes with HMOs, if you make an expensive claim, especially if this claim is more than your previous payments to the company, it’s in their best interest to find a way to deny your claim.

Sicko is an entertaining movie however, it’s pretty funny to see how many government services other countries provide in comparison to the US. Without Bush however, Sicko doesn’t have the controversy of Fahrenheit 9/11 or Bowling for Columbine. Democrats and Republicans can generally agree something needs to be done about healthcare, so who is there to argue with? This movie also lacks the sound bites and video clips of Moore’s previous films, which no doubt hurts any buzz surrounding this movie. The biggest buzz surrounding this movie? Moore takes an illegal trip to Cuba and fears the US government will confiscate his movie (as if that would ever happen…), so he hides a copy somewhere in Canada. Yippie! it’s like an FBI treasure hunt!

I do recommend seeing this movie however, it’s entertaining if anything, and it’ll make you afraid to go outside for fear of being sick and having to move into your daughter’s basement. Michael Moore has said he doesn’t mind if people pirate his movie though, so go find a torrent for it

 UPDATE 06/25/07: NPR has put up a Sicko fact-checking page which you can read here

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