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 Sicko was shown at the London Film Festival last week. It is Michael Moore's latest effort, looking at the mess that is America's privatised healthcare system, relying as it does upon insurance claims to pay medical bills.
As Moore's average, middle-class, insured subjects show us, though, having the insurance may still not be enough. The industry does all it can to avoid payouts, denying the needy of healthcare.
Netribution's London correspondent Suchandrika Chakrabarti provides an extensive, absorbing review of the latest film from the documentary world's most popular (creatively) and challenged (critically) director.
See the trailer here:
Moore's case studies give us horror stories
Moore's case studies give us horror stories; of retired couples having to
sell homes, an 18-month-old girl dying because her she was in a
hospital not covered by her mother's insurance, and the 9/11 workers
who are all but ignored by government health initiatives.
Moore was unable to fulfil his wish to present his
documentary on the American health insurance system to the
London Film Festival.
However, he managed to send a letter to the organisers, exhorting the audience to "NOT to go down the American road of privitization and profit when it comes to health care."
The
letter also makes other good points about the creeping privatisation of
our dear old NHS - as many have accused Moore of seeing the institution
in far too rosy a light in the film.
It's worth going over to the LFF site and taking a look at his words before reading this review, as, unlike the film, the letter is aimed at a British audience. Sicko, on the other hand, is aimed squarely at Moore's fellow countrymen (with him using "we" throughout the voiceovers), implicating all of his US viewers in the healthcare mess he investigates.
As for the film itself: Sicko is gripping, moving and thoroughly convincing. It is also funny, with Moore at first showing us the absurdities of the American system through the case of Rick, a woodworker who sliced off the tips of his ring and middle fingers.
The ring finger is much cheaper to repair - a bargain $12 000; the middle is that much more expensive at $60 000. The uninsured Rick can't afford both, so he goes for the ring finger. We are told that his remaining fingertip ended up in a landfill site. This seemingly medieval tale is told mostly straight - we're already squirming in our seats. It isn't a great leap from Rick's case to the 18 000 Americans who die each year due to lack of insurance.
It's only when Moore gets to those lands of free care - Canada, France and Britain - that he starts to play the role of the disbelieving, Bush-like American, fearful that socialised medicine is akin to communism - more of which later.
However, as Moore goes onto say, this film isn't really about people like Rick - it's about those you'd think would be safe, protected by their hefty monthly insurance bills. They're not. Sicko is about those you'd who think would be safe, protected by their hefty monthly insurance bills. They're not. Sicko is about those who you'd think would be safe, protected by their hefty monthly insurance bills. They're not.
Moore has a list of his case studies here. One of the most affecting is the story of Dawnelle, whose 18-month-old daughter Mychelle died after hospital staff refused to treat her due to the constraints of Dawnelle's insurance. The delay in moving Mychelle resulted in her death. Dawnelle has since been to court and received compensation; the court documents are linked to from Moore's site; see also Democracy Now.
Then there are those medics who confess to denying treatment to avoid paying out when working for medical insurance companies. Among these are Linda Peeno, who is shown attacking the work she did for the companies in Sicko. In a Cogressional testimony, she says:
The heartlessness of the health care industry is deadly, as the patient
twenty years ago, and thousands more since then, have proven (and may
still prove) with their very lives.
Alongside these first-hand accounts of the harm that insurance companies and hospital boards have wreaked upon ordinary people are clips of President Richard Nixon only half-listening to the healthcare reforms being bandied about in his office. He does perk up considerably, though, when profits are mentioned.
To see for himself whether socialised medicine = the communists are winning (as one clip of President Ronald Reagan warns us), Moore heads to Canada, Britain and France.
Although he manages to find a hospital in London where everyone in the waiting room has been there under an hour (must have been magic), it has to be remembered that Moore is choosing his material based on the assumption that Moore has to convince Americans - particularly the 80% who don't have passports he has to convince Americans - particularly the 80% who don't have passports - of the merits of universal, government-run health care. He's not trying to convince anyone that their local NHS hospital is perfect. However, it inevitably does start to look pretty good alongside the stories from the US.
These parts of the movie are certainly more for the benefit of an American audience, although the fact that French government will send a nanny round after a birth who will happily do the laundry, may make a lot of British viewers want to move. The World Health Organisation ranked France's healthcare system as the best in the world in 2000. On the strength of that judgement, Moore is unsurprisingly enthusiastic to give his American viewers a glimpse of one noteworthy thing about the land of the cheese-eating... yeah.
And so into the third act, which sees Moore take three 9/11 workers with major health issues to Guantanamo Bay, and then to Cuba. Guantanamo because of the fabulous, free healthcare that the detainees receive: "Detainees receive medical, dental, psychiatric, and optometric care at
U.S. taxpayers' expense. In 2005, there were 35 teeth cleanings, 91
cavities filled, and 174 pairs of glasses issued."
"Detainees receive medical, dental, psychiatric, and optometric care at
U.S. taxpayers' expense. In 2005, there were 35 teeth cleanings, 91
cavities filled, and 174 pairs of glasses issued."
Unfortunately, no one lets their little boat into Guantanamo, so the
crew heads to Cuba, where they receive free healthcare, and drugs from
as little as 5 cents, from kind doctors.
Although the fact that Cuba still has human rights abuse problems is excised from this happy portrayal of the care given, again it would appear that such concerns are beyond the bounds of Moore's agenda. It seems that his argument is: Surely the US can learn from the unviersal healthcare of other developed nations?
This stunt is an comedy ending to the film, but with a clearly serious message: that ordinary people are being failed by their healthcare system.
Go, see it and judge it for yourself. For a non-American audience, the revelation isn't that Moore over-praises the Canadian, British and French health services. It's that the richest country in the world is still without a health system that works; and that so many of his case studies involve needless deaths.
Want an opposing view? Look over here
Click here to see what some NHS staff thought of it
For more information, please see Michael Moore's site, or the LFF site.
To contact the author: suchandrika@gmail.com
suchandrika.wordpress.com
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While it is true that the United States health care system sucks, really really badly, I feel compelled to point out that the World Health Organization has ranked the NHS 18th out of 190 countries. Certainly this is a fantastic ranking as compared to ours of 37th, but I feel that those who live under the NHS system should take note and strive to better their system as well.
There is a massive movement afoot in the U.S. by numerous parties to increase the quality of our health care system. The best proposal out there has been authored by Senator Conyers and Congressmen Kucinich, a single payer bill which has passed our house of representatives called HR-676.
Are the people of England happy that their system hasn't even made it into the top ten? Do they care that France has the honor of being number 1? What has to happen for people to get off their duff and scream bloody murder about how they are treated by their health care system?
I suspect that the powers that exist in the United States, health insurance providers, will stop at nothing to keep their profit margins as high as possible, by reducing their services as much as possible. What's your excuse?