On Saturday night, My girlfriend and I went to see SiCKO, the latest film by Michael Moore. She’s already put her up her thoughts on the film here. We loved it. And to make the experience extra cool, we filled out questionnaires from the studios because we were part of the first general screening audience to view the film; and according to Moore’s website, every single sneak preview was sold out.
SiCKO is different from Moore’s other films. There’s less of his jowly face in it. There’s a Rutgers hat on his head for lots of the film (in addition to his Michigan State Spartans hat of course). There is less (limited to about 15 minutes of the 2h 3m of the film) sensationalism in this film. This film is not partisan to either major political party.
This film is heartbreakingly sad to watch. If you’ve experienced life without healthcare coverage, it will be particularly touching. If you’ve experienced life without adequate coverage, it will be particularly touching. If you have the ability to relate to another human being’s problems, this film will make you cry. I was tearing throughout the entire visit by the Americans to Cuba.
The film takes you from Colorado to Philadelphia to California to Missouri to Michigan to Canada to France to England to Cuba.
This film is perfect in that it is completely accessible to the average person. It dispels myths of the horrors of a state run medical system. Sure, they have their problems, but so does ours. Approximately 250,000,000 Americans have coverage and approximately 50,000,000 do not. This film is about the quarter billion who do and the service they receive, or do not receive. Canada, France, England and Cuba are all smaller countries with tens of millions if not hundreds of millions fewer people. But also with billions less in monetary power to provide for their people yet America lags far behind in the basic service of making sure its people are healthy and practicing preventative care.
I think of myself as a pretty well informed person. Not so much when it comes to the issue of healthcare, but I know what’s going on in our system even though I avoid doctors of all sorts like the plague itself. But seeing the things that are free in crazy socialized healthcare countries like Canada, France, England and Cuba, it was just astonishing. People would laugh at Moore when asked questions like how much it costs to have a baby in a hospital [answer: $0 in England] or the price of 30 pills opposed to a prescription of 120 [answer: the same under England’s NHS].
Learning when England decided to change their healthcare system to a universally covered system was astonishing. It was 1948, just after World War II as most of England was rubble and bankrupt, they decided that no person should go without coverage. Good show.
I’ve been very fortunate in my life. My mother was a (and still is) city (NYC) employed pharmacist when I was growing up. We had coverage. I was a pretty healthy kid. I didn’t have any allergies. The only surgery I ever had was a cyst removed from the roof of my mouth. The only emergency room visits I can recall was one particularly bad bout of the flu and a sprained knee in high school while playing soccer. My teeth were (still are!) slightly crooked, but not so bad as to need braces. My eyes are probably my biggest directly health-related expense as I have glasses and contacts. When I’ve had coverage (currently do), I haven’t needed to go to the doctor. When I didn’t have coverage (several years), I didn’t need to go to the doctor. I fear a traumatic incident putting me in the hospital with crazy bills to pay and my carrier dropping my ass like a bad habit. Hopefully that day will never come.
The film wasn’t all tears though. It was quite funny. His funniest yet for me. You can’t have a wide release like this without something to lighten the mood a little here and there. The film was a good length. I could’ve stayed there for another two hours, but I’m sure most can’t. I think he’s really gotten the hang of it now and his films will be more and more piercing as he continues to make films which I hope he does. But in the meantime, there is SiCKO and it is a must see. If for some reason you can’t make it to the theater – say you’re bed ridden because your carrier dropped your ass like a bad habit forcing you to work three jobs to pay off your hospital bills or simply having a child without someone to watch him/her for a few hours to see the film, pirated versions are available online (yes a solid week before the full release of the film on June 29th). After watching it; go buy the DVD in a few months, I’m sure it’ll have all kinds of goodies on it and you’ll know some money will be going back to the people who put up the money for this film to be made. Moore has said in the past that he’d rather his films be seen via pirated versions than not at all; but it is the studio which owns the full rights to the film.