SICKO

I’ll keep this brief – see this film. It’s the single most important film I’ve seen in…I don’t know how long. Michael Moore wisely keeps the focus out of the politics and just on the affect our system has here, and the effects of universal health care in other countries (and if you’ve ever had any reservations about universal health care, I can’t see any of them remaining after watching this). Would universal health care be a step towards socialism? Maybe, but, as Moore points out, we’ve socialized the fire department, the police force, schools, libraries, etc. And how bad could France’s system be if people not only get free health care, but free child care (well, okay, $1 an hour), free nannies, five-eight weeks paid vacation (with an extra week for your honeymoon), unlimited sick days, and in the end have higher productivity? And you still get to choose your doctor.

Michael Moore, as he did with Fahrenheit 9/11, backed up all the facts presented in this film. It’s not a fact-heavy film, as most of it is about comparing how well people get by with universal health care, and how well we get by on HMO, but the facts that are there are important, so even if you (unwisely) choose not to see the movie, I encourage you to look through the fact sheet. It’s pretty damn informative.

The one area I’d fault it on is Moore does a huge stunt towards the end in taking 9/11 rescue workers to Guantanamo Bay for health care, which ends up being little more than that – a stunt. But it does lead to an important point in which we find out that, yes, Cubans get better health care than we do.

But once again, see it. It’s quite often very funny, incredibly informative, totally convincing, a little enraging, and even a bit touching at the end.