Despite its length, Sicko does not go too deeply into many aspects, such as the actual role of Big Pharma in the health care crisis, focusing more on the big insurers and their adherence to profit principles, showing how this distorts priorities and the quality of delivered health care. There are a few overlong sections that could have been cut, such as an aging Old Labour warrior singing the praises of Clement Atlee's National Health Service, the British 'national religion'.
The Hillary Clinton-espoused universal health care exercise of the 1990s is also explored, and this might have been the film that handed her the Presidency, were it not for the none-too-unusual revelation that she accepted significant lobbying/campaign contributions from the very industry she set out to reform, becoming, in 2005-06, the second-highest health care funded politician in the United States,though not the only one. The industry-politics nexus is not limited to health care, or even to the United States, and is a natural outcome of a neoliberal system, yet it is somewhat disconcerting to see it in action, especially when it is our lives and health at stake rather than sausage and pork barrels.
Michael Moore's favorite whipping-boy, President George W Bush, is picked on a few times in this film, although more in the sense of highlighting relevant Bushisms and his role in passing the Medicare Act of 2003. Sicko segues onto themes raised in Moore's last film, Fahrenheit 9/11 by providing a kind of report card on the plight of 9/11 rescue workers and their illnesses, and in a moving scene, demonstrating the universality of tragedy through the honoring of American rescue workers by Cuban fire fighters.
The film provides a warning and perhaps an opportunity, yet it is hard to believe that it could overturn an entire health care system in the most prosperous country in the world. All the same, if it makes a difference in a few lives, it would have done more than most films.
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Article comments
1 - shanky
a to the point review for a "to the point" documentary. saw MM on larry king live - i think no prizes for guessing who LK will be voting for in the next elections!!
2 - the roofer in the woods
Mike Moore may be that spark that starts a fire under this nation. These moments in time do not come very often,if they are missed history stagnates for eons ......till the music comes around again "Alice's Restaurant"
P. J. O'Rourke:
The Democrats are the party of government activism, the party that says government can make you richer, smarter, taller, and get the chickweed out of your lawn. Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work, and then get elected and prove it.
The young of 61-74 did what they could. "We are old." "Ring the Bell" I have one more round. I can't see as well or hear the music so well......... The youth of America needs to answer the call