Michael Moore talks to a doctor in France about their Health Care System in Sicko, The Weinstein Company © 2007.

Michael Moore’s Sicko, a documentary about the problems with America’s healthcare system and how it compares with the others in the world, continues Moore’s “in-your-face” exploration of corruption in domestic and international America.

The film opens with a series of anecdotes from Americans who fell ill or have suffered an injury and either do not have health insurance or their case has been rejected for coverage. A man named Rick who accidentally sawed off the top of his ring and middle fingers. Having no insurance, the price for treatment came to $12,000 for his ring finger and $60,000 for his middle finger: He could pay only for his ring finger. Another story told of an insured woman who got stuck paying an ambulance bill because she didn’t clear the charge with her insurer before she became unconscious and needed the ambulance.

The film also shows the issue from the perspective of insurance company employees. Many of the employees confront their guilt in talking head interviews about doing their job by saving the company money, but also denying people what might be life-saving operations.
The film also examines the health care systems of other countries. Would you believe the United States is ranked number thirty-seven out of one hundred ninety-one by the World Health Organization for the best health care systems in the world? Many of the countries that rank significantly higher on the list, such as France, have instituted a free national health system, funded by taxes from those who can pay for it. All hospital bills are free, along with transportation reimbursement.

Michael Moore is one of my favorite film directors for many reasons. I would have to say that Moore is a primary example about how effective investigating can be and how “direct” a director sometimes needs to be. Rather than just observing and capturing, Michael Moore truly puts his famed activism to work in this film. In an epic scene towards the end of the film, he takes a handful of ill 9/11 rescue workers to Cuba for medical treatment. Moore also anonymously writes a $12,000 check to the host of a hate Web site targeting Moore. The site host can’t afford to keep the Web site running and pay for his wife’s operation, so Moore kicks in a donation.

Though Moore takes many risks in this film, but the people he talks to and the horrors he uncovers is incredibly thought-provoking. It raises questions like: Why do thirty-six other countries have it so much better than us? Why are American hospitals dumping their patients on the streets because they can’t afford to pay their bill? My own dangerous question is: Why can’t a nation that has so much money afford to take care of its people?

The editing by Geoffrey Richman, Christopher Seward, and Dan Swietlik makes Sicko Moore’s tightest and best-flowing film. It feels quick, it’s a lot of fun, and at the same time masterful in the way it delivers information to its audience. There are many humorous cuts and snippets of old educational reels, but also some very dark tape-recorded conversations from the Nixon Oval Office.

Sicko is incredibly informing and well put-together. Moore always manages to pack a powerful punch into his documentaries, something all documentary directors have worked years to do. Regardless of your political stance or conflicting opinions on his other films such as Fahrenheit 9/11, this film is as important as Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth.

The audience applauded in approval at the end of this film.

Rated PG-13 for brief strong language.

Running time 113 minutes.