I first posted about this movie May 22, 2007.
How could I have missed seeing it until now?
It’s a very important film. Especially with the Health Care debate happening in the USA.
… Sicko is a 2007 documentary … by American film maker Michael Moore. The film investigates the American health care system, focusing on its health insurance and pharmaceutical industry. The film compares the for-profit, non-universal U.S. system with the non-profit universal health care systems of Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Cuba. …
You can watch it free and legal on Google Video.
It’s not a documentary. It’s Michael Moore’s one sided diatribe against the American Medical system.
But he got the bottom line right. The USA has a crappy medical system, overall. Sure if you have good coverage in the States (working for Cirque du Soleil, for example) … you are better off personally than someone working for, say, Cirque in Canada.
But something like 50 million Americans have no insurance. That is really sick!
People are healthier and live longer in pretty much every other developed country, too.
The case studies in Sicko are selective, but still well worth watching. (I want to move to France from Canada after seeing those interviews!)
Under the Obama presidency, something is going to happen in the USA. But what?
It’s complicated.
The best vision I’ve heard is that of George C. Halvorson, CEO of Kaiser Permanente, the largest managed care organization in the United States. A non-profit.
… KP places a strong emphasis on preventative care, reducing costs later on. Second, its doctors are salaried rather than paid per service, which removes any incentive for doctors to perform unnecessary procedures. Thirdly, KP attempts to minimize the time patients spend in high-cost hospitals by carefully planning their stay and by providing cares in clinics. …
His most recent book: Health Care Will Not Reform Itself: A User’s Guide to Refocusing and Reforming American Health Care
Halvorson is a realist. Not a utopian like Michael Moore.
Listen to an interview with Halvorson on NPR.
In his movie Michael Moore neglected to mention that current systems in countries like Canada will soon collapse. They are not sustainable financially.
In 10 or 20 years how will the U.S. ranking compare?
That’s being decided right now.
Leave a comment if you have an opinion.
Rick McCharles 
I have seen Sicko, and I have lived in both systems – the USA and Canada. Both systems are broken. I have the great Cirque coverage in the USA, and have been treated extremely well here. But the paperwork, the constant following up on bills is exhausting. However, in Canada there are a whole different set of problems. I recently spent 5 months back there. Was denied coverage by my province, was a pay for use patient and had a plethora of problems.
Both systems are broken. I believe in a two tier system.