SiCKO is Socko

Printed on: Thu, Jun 21, 2007

"Sicko" will open some eyes

By Kelvin Wade

A few weeks ago, while waiting six hours in the ER waiting room, all I could think about was Michael Moore's upcoming movie "Sicko," which is about the American health-care industry. Having recently seen the flick, this infectious film was well worth the wait.

Moore makes it clear that his film isn't about the nearly 50 million Americans without health care. No, this movie is about the 250 million people who are covered or think they are. Moore's movie is a call to arms for universal health-care coverage.

He then treats us to a parade of ordinary folks who paid their premiums and found that their claims were denied by HMOs bent on maximizing the bottom line. Former medical director Dr. Linda Peno quit her job after finding she could no longer work for a company that gave incentives to deny claims. She lamented that whenever the company had to pay out on a medical claim, it was referred to as a "loss."

The film shows the American health-care system at its most shameful when hospitals in Southern California drop off mentally ill, destitute patients on Skid Row.

When Moore's cameras turn to the health-care systems of countries like Canada, England, and France, that's when jaws are likely to drop. Seeing a seemingly endless parade of sick people walk into hospitals, be treated and leave without paying stirs envy in the American heart. In one scene Moore is laughed off when he asks where the billing department is in a London hospital.

When he asks a couple with a new baby how much the child's delivery cost, the couple laughs and says, "This is not America."

The film gets your blood roiling when you see American Donna Smith, cancer survivor, go to a Cuban pharmacy and finds that her $120-a-month medication is sold there for five cents. Or that to receive medical treatment in Cuba, which has some of the finest doctors in the world, requires only your name and birth date.

We're the United States and we can't do better?

Moore takes on the naysayers who warn against "socialized medicine" by pointing out how Americans have socialized other services without us turning into Communists. The postal service, police, firefighters and public libraries are all services paid for by our pooled resources. Imagine having a house fire and having to wonder if you can pay for firefighters to come put out the fire. Absurd, isn't it? Yet we don't seem to find anything absurd about having to do just that when it comes to our health.

On the downside, I take issue with Moore's frequent use of the word "free" to describe universal health care. Just like that elusive free lunch, there's no free health care worldwide. In fact, Moore only alludes to how it's paid for once, when he notes that the French are "drowning in taxes."

The film also doesn't delve into any problems the other health systems have. The socialized health-care systems of other countries are presented as medical nirvanas. Having a brother who lives in Canada and is a Canadian citizen, I know that there are problems with the system.

While the film takes a couple brief shots at Bush, fans expecting partisan bashing will be disappointed. Hillary Clinton takes her lumps. Sickness doesn't discriminate based on politics.

The film is by turns funny, sad and insightful. While one can make the claim that they're being manipulated by a crafty left wing auteur, is anyone seriously arguing that our bloated, insurance-company-run system isn't in need of an overhaul?

"SiCKO," rated PG-13, hits theaters June 29, with sneak previews in San Francisco and Sacramento this Saturday.