Laura Burnum was in a 45 mph head-on collision that knocked her out cold. Paramedics pulled her from her car and took her to the hospital in an ambulance. Receiving the bill, she found her health insurance had denied payment for the ambulance: the expense was not “pre-approved.” “I don’t know when, exactly, I was supposed to pre-approve it,” she explains. “After I gained consciousness in the car? Before I got in to the ambulance?” For many Americans, horror stories like this are all too familiar. Even for America’s insured, collecting insurance benefits can be like pulling teeth.
Sicko deserves to be approached with an open mind, despite Moore’s notoriety. I’m not about to extol the virtues of Michael Moore (I was rather disgusted by Fahrenheit 9/11). Sicko, fortunately, is a much better side of Moore than we saw in Fahrenheit: he’s angry and inquisitive, but his focus is on people, not politics; possibilities, not problems; and comradery, not condemnation. Coincidentally, perhaps, Moore is much less present in Sicko than his previous documentaries, not appearing on screen once during the first forty-five minutes.
Fifty million Americans do not have health insurance. Sicko isn’t a movie about these people. It’s about the other 250 million of us Americans who are insured and “living the American dream”, especially those bankrupt or buried in debt after uncovered treatments, or those unable to get treatment in the first place.
Typical of Michael Moore, Sicko opens with some broad questions: why does the United States have the highest infant mortality rate in the Western world? Why are health care costs so high in the United States? Less typical of Moore, however, the questions seem sincere and logically explored.
Moore begins by interviewing employees within the Health Care Provider industry. They indicate that it all comes back to the bottom line. “I had one primary duty,” says former Humana medical director Linda Peeno: “to use my medical expertise for the financial benefit of the organization.”
Starting with the United States, Moore takes his audience on a whirlwind tour through Canada, Britain and France, collecting interviews with patients and doctors. Though his faux incredulity at European health care prices—free—gets repetitive, he drives his point home well: individuals in Europe are never crippled by the costs of their medical care.
Along the way, Moore makes new friends. We meet several 9/11 volunteer rescue workers who have experienced significant health problems, resulting from their heroic work in the wake of the attacks. But as volunteers, some were not covered by the city’s insurance policy, and have fallen through the cracks.
Like many documentaries, Sicko rides a fine line between being informative and manipulative. It toys with our emotions, juxtaposing heart-rending stories and light humor. Moore doesn’t pretend that he presents an objective perspective, but at least includes details that don’t necessarily further his liberal ideology. For example, while Sicko celebrates Hilary Clinton for her work toward Universal Health Care coverage during the first years of Bill Clinton’s presidency, it also notes her withdrawal from the campaign and suggests her subsequent silence as complicity with the health care providers.
Moore’s overall tone is not of indictment, but encouragement. He highlights what’s best in our society and asks why not our health-care coverage? Sicko has been aptly described as Moore’s “least antagonistic and most restrained effort to date”. Appropriately so: we all get sick, and we all have to deal with burdening medical costs and unresponsive insurance companies. Sicko isn’t perfect, but it asks important questions, and elucidates those questions in a methodical and logical way. Well worth two hours, it would be unfortunate to miss this film due to partisan bias.
Sicko will screen at The Procrastinator Theatre on Thursday and Saturday at 7:00 ($2) and 9:10 p.m. ($1) and on Friday at 7:00 p.m. ($2)