SiCKO

To call Michael Moore a divisive figure would be putting it extremely mildly. Even someone like me, who quite often agrees with many of his points, at times gets tired of the contemptuous way he often presents said points. At the same time, I find it interesting how people who disagree with him often do exactly what they accuse him of: ignoring or hiding the facts. Instead of addressing his points they'll make remarks about his appearance, or talk about his "followers" or accuse him of being anti-American. Or my favorite: they'll accuse him of being hypocritical because he's wealthy (which I find interesting because, as far as I know, he's never said there's anything wrong with being wealthy; he seems to disapprove of ultimate wealth at all costs because that invariably leaves a portion of the population in a perpetual state of poverty (alliteration rules).

I think SiCKO is quite possibly Moore's greatest achievement yet. I've appreciated his self-appointed mission since I first had to study Roger & Me in college. And more so than any movie in history, Fahrenheit 9/11 made documentaries popular and relevant to the general population. But SiCKO is the first time that we get the impression that he actually cares more about the people that he supposedly represents than he does about the cause du jour that he's championing. He also does an excellent job of putting faces on this particular epidemic. It is one thing to rationalize private health care when one is just looking at numbers and statistics. It is something else entirely when you have to enter the lives of the people who have to live with their particular ailment.

To be sure, Moore continues to use his most common magic trick of asking you to focus on what is in his right hand while ignoring what's in his left: he never talks about the taxes paid by people in socialized health care systems; for all we know, the doctor in London that he interviews might be the wealthiest practitioner in all of the United Kingdom; and I don't care how he tries to make it look, I can't imagine that there is a large percentage of people who would rather go to a hospital in Cuba than they would one in the United States.

That being said, there are many facts that he presents that cannot be denied, no matter how strong a critic of Moore one is:

- in the nations he visits, if you're sick, you will have access to a doctor for virtually no out of pocket cost;
- child mortality rates in the United States are higher than those in Cuba.
- the United States government has ignored the health conditions that have developed in September 11 volunteer workers.

Moore's most significant point in SiCKO is this: in a land where health care is private, the goal is not to actually help people but to make a profit. Thus there is significant incentive for insurance companies, the pharmaceutical industry, lobbyists and congressmen to turn away those in need (or make it extremely expensive to get help) rather than spend the money to assist them. While many politicians continue to preach the evil of socialized health care, the fact is that it works in other nations. And, as he points out, why is this such an issue when these same politicians seem to have absolutely no problem whatsoever with socialized police systems, fire departments, postal services and public education?

In the film, one of the Americans living in France echoes a line from V for Vendetta: France has the number one health care system in the world (as ranked by the World Health Organization) because there the government is afraid of its people. The United States is able to get away with being the only industrialized nation in the world without universal health care because here, people are afraid of the government. Things are likely to remain stagnant until that changes.


"What we don't know keeps the contracts alive and moving/ They don't gotta burn the books, they'll just remove them."
- Rage Against the Machine