I became a follower of Michael Moore's work when I saw the Awful Truth series circa 2000. And have seen/read everything except Canadian Bacon and the soldier's letters collection. To be honest he was probably at his creative peak in the mid-90's but his more recent films are still entertaining and informative about aspects of American society.
The Awful Truth introduced me to the approach American insurance companies take to healthcare, with a guy who was denied coverage for a kidney transplant. He was basically waiting for death to arrive at any moment until Moore successfully pressured the company into covering the procedure. I have also seen current affairs stories which told of how people were accumulating hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt after being treated by "county" hospitals that are required to treat people regardless of their insurance status. The medical system is improperly funded which results in huge fees to cover the gap.
Sicko gives us some good stories of people who have fallen victim to the U.S. healthcare system. What became apparent to me was that the insurance companies were having their cake and eating it too by being paid for the insurance, then not giving payments. This goes against the whole principal of insurance but apparently they are free to twist the rules as they see fit due to political lobbying and contributions. People don't fall through the cracks, "a crack is created and they are swept towards it". But like the downsizing corporations, they are simply following the guidelines they are issued. It is top-down corruption from the U.S. plutocracy: Nixon signed into effect the current system under the guise of a new era of healthcare while at the same time universal healthcare was associated with paving the path towards communism (and what a trumped-up threat that was).
Moore presents a first-person perspective of universal healthcare as experienced in Canada, Britan and France. This is where Sicko becomes a bit weak as an informed viewer will be aware that he is only presenting the best face of these systems. I wouldn't expect him to travel to Australia where State/Federal divisions in tax revenue distribution has resulted in crumbling infrastructure and staffing levels in public hospitals. Or poorer, more isolated parts of the countries he visits. But the point that Moore is trying to make is that universal healthcare can work, and (speaking from my own experience) even when it is underfunded it is still a far more humane approach to healthcare.
As an attempt at humour Moore tries to get some people some treatment at Guantanamo bay, which has better healthcare than US citizens can expect probably because it would look strange to the international community to treat them the same as the average uninsured US citizen. They didn't even get close, they were kilometers away from a watchtower and scurried when they heard a siren. The real purpose of the trip was apparently to get treatment at a Cuban hospital but again they don't pick a random hospital, they apparently received treatment at the best hospital in the country. But it was slightly amusing to see citizens of the richest country in the world weeping with gratitude for treatment they were generously being given by a poor country.
Ironically the U.S. may get universal healthcare in the near future as the major Presidential candidates from the Democrat party have policies to introduce it. Speaking of politics, how the Republican party has received wide support after introducing the current system and actively defeating an effort to introduce universal heathcare in the early 90's is beyond me. Maybe the populace has been prevented from being "educated, healthy and confident".
The Awful Truth introduced me to the approach American insurance companies take to healthcare, with a guy who was denied coverage for a kidney transplant. He was basically waiting for death to arrive at any moment until Moore successfully pressured the company into covering the procedure. I have also seen current affairs stories which told of how people were accumulating hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt after being treated by "county" hospitals that are required to treat people regardless of their insurance status. The medical system is improperly funded which results in huge fees to cover the gap.
Sicko gives us some good stories of people who have fallen victim to the U.S. healthcare system. What became apparent to me was that the insurance companies were having their cake and eating it too by being paid for the insurance, then not giving payments. This goes against the whole principal of insurance but apparently they are free to twist the rules as they see fit due to political lobbying and contributions. People don't fall through the cracks, "a crack is created and they are swept towards it". But like the downsizing corporations, they are simply following the guidelines they are issued. It is top-down corruption from the U.S. plutocracy: Nixon signed into effect the current system under the guise of a new era of healthcare while at the same time universal healthcare was associated with paving the path towards communism (and what a trumped-up threat that was).
Moore presents a first-person perspective of universal healthcare as experienced in Canada, Britan and France. This is where Sicko becomes a bit weak as an informed viewer will be aware that he is only presenting the best face of these systems. I wouldn't expect him to travel to Australia where State/Federal divisions in tax revenue distribution has resulted in crumbling infrastructure and staffing levels in public hospitals. Or poorer, more isolated parts of the countries he visits. But the point that Moore is trying to make is that universal healthcare can work, and (speaking from my own experience) even when it is underfunded it is still a far more humane approach to healthcare.
As an attempt at humour Moore tries to get some people some treatment at Guantanamo bay, which has better healthcare than US citizens can expect probably because it would look strange to the international community to treat them the same as the average uninsured US citizen. They didn't even get close, they were kilometers away from a watchtower and scurried when they heard a siren. The real purpose of the trip was apparently to get treatment at a Cuban hospital but again they don't pick a random hospital, they apparently received treatment at the best hospital in the country. But it was slightly amusing to see citizens of the richest country in the world weeping with gratitude for treatment they were generously being given by a poor country.
Ironically the U.S. may get universal healthcare in the near future as the major Presidential candidates from the Democrat party have policies to introduce it. Speaking of politics, how the Republican party has received wide support after introducing the current system and actively defeating an effort to introduce universal heathcare in the early 90's is beyond me. Maybe the populace has been prevented from being "educated, healthy and confident".