According to documentarian and wry everyman narrator Michael Moore, the ailing United States health insurance system may not be terminal, but it is certainly in critical condition. And in his latest dead-on skewering of a modern-day sociopolitical quagmire, “Sicko,” he gives the corrupt powers responsible the treatment they deserve using his customary sense of irony to buffer the side effects.
It’s the cleansing cinematic equivalent of a painful enema exposing the criminal immorality of the “managed care” insurance and pharmaceutical profiteers and the politicians in both parties who gobble up their graft. They’ve designed a structure that utterly excludes nearly 50 million of our fellow citizens and leaves the rest of us with inexplicably limited coverage and sky-high out-of-pocket bills at our most agonizing times of need.
Perhaps not even unintentionally, they let people suffer and die to boost their bottom lines.
For proof, just behold a few of the horror stories Moore showcases here: a hard-working middle-aged couple who lost their home and were forced to live in their daughter’s storage room after the full crippling costs of his heart disease and her cancer weren’t covered. A 79-year-old man with Medicare forced to go back to work as a janitor to pay for all his family’s medicines. A deaf child allowed coverage for a cochlear implant in only one of her two deaf ears. A beloved young father allowed to die while a board of review dithered over whether a life-saving procedure might be considered experimental. Rescue workers from the World Trade Center attack — our great heroes — left alone to bear the physical and financial nightmare behind the mysterious respiratory illness contracted on-site.
The pre-existing condition at work here is greed. And Moore suggests the cure. He advocates universal coverage in the form of a government-run system like those found in most other developed countries. He tours on-screen what he finds to be the egalitarianism and efficiency of the systems in Canada, England, France and Cuba to contrast against ours.
True, there’s no ideological balance in “Sicko.” There’s no acknowledgement of the high quality of health care in the United States — at least for people fortunate enough to be able to afford the best, most state-of-the-art therapies. And no alternative solutions are offered besides the “single-payer” system.
But say what you want about Moore’s one-sided, left-leaning presentation of facts. He’s never pretended to be a newsman. He’s an artist with a stubborn and provocative point of view. He’s a master at harnessing the medium of film to raise the toughest questions and make meaningful ideas entertaining to a population that’s been lulled into an apathetic coma by wall-to-wall coverage of Paris Hilton’s exploits and too many Big Macs.
Thanks to Moore, “Sicko” matters — and might even make a difference.
‘Sicko’
5/5 stars
Director: Michael Moore
Rated PG-13 for brief strong language
