FILM REVIEW

‘Sicko’ draws attention to health care

Michael Moore has returned to stir the American politics pot once again — but this time he is tackling an issue that both of sides of the aisle recognize as a problem.

Universal health care is the focus of Moore’s latest documentary “Sicko” (Lionsgate/Weinstein). In his latest installment of in-your-face, soft journalism, Moore points a few less fingers and focuses more on the people affected by private healthcare the United States.

Although Moore doesn’t break away from his inflammatory, isn’t-Canada-great style, the documentary does present stories that will tug on Americans’ heartstrings. Moore does this by telling stories about people who died waiting for their insurance to cover a potentially life-saving medical procedure.

Due to the nature of private health care, even insured Americans should be scared, he says, because health care is owned by private businesses.

The goal of a business is to make more money than it spends. The way health care companies do that — according to workers in the health care field interviewed in “Sicko” — is by denying claims for medical services. The denial of claims can be something small like a prescription or something as large as surgery for a brain tumor.

Moore goes through a handful of stories about people who were denied coverage for life-saving surgeries. Some of those interviewed died while others were able to seek out different means of treatment in another country.

He gives a brief history of privatized health care with interviews from former employees of insurance carriers. Those former employees say they would find loopholes in medical records so insurance companies could deny coverage.

Focusing on the fact that the United States is ranked 37th in health care in the world, Moore then spends a great deal of time visiting other countries that ranked higher. Championing Canada, England, France and Cuba in the documentary, Moore visits each country and interviews citizens there about health care.

Apparently everyone in those countries is pleased with universal health care — from the doctors providing it to the patients receiving it. This makes “Sicko” a one-sided film that does not recognize opposition to universal health care.

Every system has its critics and it seems incredulous that Moore would be unable to find even one person that disliked universal health care.

The greatest weakness in “Sicko” is Moore’s failure to address a montage he shows of American journalists reporting on the waiting that occurs in universal health care systems.

After the montage, Moore goes into emergency rooms in Canada and asks how long people have been waiting — most had been waiting for much less than an hour. But that’s for emergency care, not the long-term care reported on.

Heavy handed throughout, in “Sicko” Moore claims that the real illness in America lies in the corrupt insurance companies. After two hours, it is hardly enough time to evaluate the validity of such a claim.

Still, Moore does make an interesting case for the need to create a new vision of health care in America, universal or not.

In “Sicko,” Moore is sometimes funny, often inflammatory and unquestionably has compassion for the Americans who are suffering from lack of coverage. “Sicko” is not a fair and unbiased look at health care, but it certainly is interesting and heartfelt in its purpose.

Rebecca Bostic is a regular contributor to The Catholic Sun. Comments are welcome. Send e-mail to letters@catholicsun.org.