Michael Moore's Sicko - Anyone?

mike · #1 06-29-2007, 11:41 AM

Michael Moore's newest movie Sicko is being released 29 June. Anyone going to see it? Post your review here if you see it!

Michael Moore's Sicko

mike · #2 06-30-2007, 01:10 PM

Wow! Kurt Loder from MTV really slams Moore!

Quote:

There's a woman whose husband was prescribed new drugs to combat his cancer, but couldn't get their insurance company to pay for them because the drugs were experimental. Her husband died.

Then there's a woman who made an emergency trip to a hospital for treatment and subsequently learned her insurance company wouldn't pay for the ambulance that took her there — because it hadn't been "pre-approved." And there's a middle-aged couple — a man, who suffered three heart attacks, and his wife, who developed cancer — who were bankrupted by the cost of co-payments and other expenses not covered by their insurance, and have now been forced to move into a cramped, dismal room in the home of a resentful son. There's also a 79-year-old man who has to continue working a menial job because Medicare won't cover the cost of all the medications he needs.

Moore does a real service in bringing these stories to light — some of them are horrifying, and then infuriating. One giant health-maintenance organization, Kaiser Permanente, is so persuasively lambasted in the movie that, on the basis of what we're told, we want to burst into the company's executive suites and make a mass citizen's arrest. This is the sort of thing good muckrakers are supposed to do.

Unfortunately, Moore is also a con man of a very brazen sort, and never more so than in this film. His cherry-picked facts, manipulative interviews (with lingering close-ups of distraught people breaking down in tears) and blithe assertions (how does he know 18 million people will die this year because they have no health insurance?) are so stacked that you can feel his whole argument sliding sideways as the picture unspools. The American health-care system is in urgent need of reform, no question. Some 47 million people are uninsured (although many are only temporarily so, being either in-between jobs or young enough not to feel a pressing need to buy health insurance). There are a number of proposals as to what might be done to correct this situation. Moore has no use for any of them, save one.

As a proud socialist, the director appears to feel that there are few problems in life that can't be solved by government regulation (that would be the same government that's already given us the U.S. Postal Service and the Department of Motor Vehicles). In the case of health care, though, Americans have never been keen on socialized medicine. In 1993, when one of Moore's heroes, Hillary Clinton (he actually blurts out the word "sexy!" in describing her in the movie), tried to create a government-controlled health care system, her failed attempt to do so helped deliver the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives into Republican control for the next dozen years. Moore still looks upon Clinton's plan as a grand idea, one that Americans, being not very bright, unwisely rejected. (He may be having second thoughts about Hillary herself, though: In the movie he heavily emphasizes the fact that, among politicians, she accepts the second-largest amount of political money from the health care industry.)
The problem with American health care, Moore argues, is that people are charged money to avail themselves of it. In other countries, like Canada, France and Britain, health systems are far superior — and they're free. He takes us to these countries to see a few clean, efficient hospitals, where treatment is quick and caring; and to meet a few doctors, who are delighted with their government-regulated salaries; and to listen to patients express their beaming happiness with a socialized health system. It sounds great. As one patient in a British hospital run by the country's National Health Service says, "No one pays. It's all on the NHS. It's not America."

Full story here.

ssnapier · #3 06-30-2007, 01:44 PM

I really dislike that guy, but I might try and download a copy of this movie just to see it. I have not seen any of his other films, and I am not giving him a dime of my money, but downloading it seems quite appropriate in this case!

stillafool · #4 07-01-2007, 08:29 PM

i saw this about two weeks ago. you can disagree with moore's previous rants all you like, however, he is daring and brazen in the fact that he has spent his time and money to address something that most young americans don't care to know about. i'm not saying it's the most objective piece of journalism, but kurt loder is a tool. moore should be praised just for making the attempt that he has made in this film. being the wealthiest country in the world should afford the luxury of free universal healthcare. yes, there are some staged parts in it and he asks questions to which he already has an idea what the answer is. but the real point to me are the cold facts that america is between costa rica(37?) and slovenia (39?) on the WHO's list of the best health coverage providers. people are getting rich from the suffering of others and it needs to be dealt with.

mike · #5 07-01-2007, 11:26 PM

Stillafool,

Michael Moore is a Socialist, Capitalist. He makes millions from guys like you complaining about capitalism, the same capitalism that makes him millions.

If you actually read Loder's articles instead of living life with blinders, you would see that Moore is actually lying. Again, he laughs all the way to the bank because people like you send your $8 to him. He dresses like a poor pig, while banking millions. He has everyone fooled that he is the little guy taking on the big boys. So, why does he charge $20,000 to speak at universities?

soonergal11 · #6 07-07-2007, 08:51 AM

I will not be watching this movie or any of his others. I refuse to support Michael Moore in ANY way!!!!

GI Korea · #7 07-07-2007, 08:01 PM

Every time I hear America needs free health care I think of sick call at the aid station where half the people are pretending to be sick to get out of PT or work. Can you imagine what will happen to the health care system in America where every American can go on sick call? After getting free health care the next thing people will demand is paid hospital leave to pay for all the time they spend on sick call. I'm sure people will find more hand outs to demand as well.

My younger brother works for Wal-mart and pays for his health insurance through a program they offer. My brother was telling me that a lot of people he works with choose not to buy the insurance that is offered. This leads me to believe that a lot of these uninsured people out there just don't want to pay the cost for health insurance and are waiting for the hand out.

Just out of curiosity I have always wondered what would happen to the number of sick calls every morning before PT starts if people had to pay $20 bucks to see the doc? I'm willing to bet the numbers would drop so much that the people that really have something wrong with them may actually get a timely appointment.

mike · #8 07-08-2007, 08:49 AM

Well said GI Korea!

Turk · #9 07-08-2007, 12:27 PM

Moore is extreme in his views, always has been. Sometimes it takes extremism to increase serious debate about an issue. We have a government sponsored health care system already, for the elderly. It is a blossoming financial mess. If the U.S. were to go to a socialized system, it would bankrupt the entire system unless we get taxed out of the ability to live. I'm lucky to be retired military and recieve decent health care, even though retiree health care has degraded over the past couple of decades. I have no complaints. .... My brother is a widower with two kids and he just retired from his primary career. He has to pay $780.00 per month to maintain his family health insurance....a friend just ended one job and started another. She won't be eligible for health insurance at her new job until she has passed the one year mark. Untril then, she has to pay $350.00 per month to maintain her same health care coverage from her old job via the COBRA program. She is single. Health insurance inflation has far outpaced wage increases and most other measures of inflation. I wonder what, if anything, can ever be done to bring the cost down, since it is baked into the high cost of health care. At least, extremist types get people and maybe even politicians to give it serious debate.

mike · #10 07-08-2007, 05:49 PM

Have you guys read the Loder article? It is well written.

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