Movie Reviews
If you would like to read a real review of the movie, ‘Noz gives his take on Sicko.
CNN deals with it as a political statement: Analysis: ‘Sicko’ numbers mostly accurate; more context needed
(CNN) — Michael Moore’s “Sicko,” which opened nationwide Friday, is filled with horror stories of people who are deprived of medical service because they can’t afford it or haven’t been able to navigate the murky waters of managed care in the United States.
It compares American health care with the universal coverage systems in Canada, France, the United Kingdom and Cuba.
Moore covers a lot of ground. Our team investigated some of the claims put forth in his film. We found that his numbers were mostly right, but his arguments could use a little more context. As we dug deep to uncover the numbers, we found surprisingly few inaccuracies in the film. In fact, most pundits or health-care experts we spoke to spent more time on errors of omission rather than disputing the actual claims in the film.
Whether it’s dollars spent, group coverage or Medicaid income cutoffs, health care goes hand in hand with numbers. Moore opens his film by giving these statistics, “Fifty million uninsured Americans … 18,000 people die because they are uninsured.”
…
Moore focuses on the private insurance companies and makes no mention of the U.S. government-funded health-care systems such as Medicare, Medicaid, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Veterans Affairs health-care systems. About 50 percent of all health-care dollars spent in the United States flows through these government systems.
So, Moore is faulted for not making a 24-hour film to provide context, and only looks at the coverage for those not in one of the government programs. I would note that CNN’s list of government programs failed to include the system for government employees at all levels, or the military system.
I guess the fact that Moore was interested in people who weren’t receiving adequate health care in the US eluded them, but they confirm what most of us knew, the US system sucks if you are an average working stiff paying your taxes.
Oh, Canada does not have a national system. Each of the provinces [Canadian for state] has a separate system. The systems are not identical throughout the nation, so you have to be careful when you make statements about specifics, like services and wait times.
Bottom line, the film is factual, but you shouldn’t believe it because our advertisers wouldn’t like it.
9 comments
i haven’t seen the movie [and likely won’t, since i already agree with him] but i was under the impression that moore thinks that private insurance sucks rotten eggs, and that he was on a mission to demonstrate this fact.
It’s more that the companies suck, as they have followed Kaiser-Permanente in emphasizing profits over all other considerations.
That headline irritated the hell out of me.
It’s okay for the White House to say anything they want and the media will carve it in stone without checking those pesky ‘facts’. But let Michael Moore make a movie and suddenly they are Diogenes?
The truth is – Moore didn’t have to make up any horror stories. You can find them in any gathering of people at any income level. Our for-profit health care system not only sucks, it’s killing people and destroying the economy.
The providers dance to the tune of the insurance companies, so if you change that part of the system, the whole system will change.
“The providers dance to the tune of the insurance companies, …” – Bryan
And that is manifestly NOT necessary! There was a time, earlier in the 20th century, when insurance was a progressive idea, and its consequences were, on the whole, beneficial to our healthcare system. How things have changed. Now it’s entirely and only about insurance company profits. I don’t even know any medical personnel, doctors or nurses, who are happy about matters, let alone any consumers of healthcare services… that would be every blessed one of us.
I suppose that in an era of unbridled crony “capitalism,” there is no good thing that cannot be perverted to society’s detriment… and someone’s unconscionable profit.
I wish I could continue to afford my private medical insurance, but unless I find additional work fairly soon, I shall join America’s vast number of uninsured people. I’m not thrilled about the prospect.
The Blue Cross/Blue Shield system in Rochester/Monroe County, New York, when I lived there was great. Nearly everyone had it, at the same price. College students had it, paid for by their student fees. Public school kids had it. You could pay for it yourself. Businesses of any size had it. You went to any doctor, and any of the three hospitals.
The secret was that almost everyone had it, so the risk was spread and the cost stayed low. People went to the doctor, not the emergency room. Things were caught early.
In the emergency rooms, the first questions were about the reason you were there, not your ability to pay.
It isn’t like that anymore. The system has collapsed as the industrial base, Kodak, Delco, Xerox, has collapsed. No it has all of the problems of every other place in the country.
I’ve heard a lot about those infamous waiting times. The Fraser Institute has publised several reports on the waiting times in Canada. What I’ve never seen in anybody’s analyses, though, is how they calculate the “waiting times” for the 40+ million uninsured people who can’t even get on a waiting list in the first place. I’m thinking that 40,000,000 x infinity is a mighty big number.
Hipparchia, the waiting times in Canada are dependent on your province, because the Canadian system isn’t national, but provincial. The waiting times in Yellow Knife are obviously going to be different than Ottawa.
A lot of people would love to be on a waiting list knowing that they would get treatment and not suffer bankruptcy because of it.
A lot of people would love to be on a waiting list knowing that they would get treatment and not suffer bankruptcy because of it.
yep.