Sicko

Sicko
Sicko theatrical poster
Directed by	Michael Moore
Written by	Michael Moore
Produced by	Michael Moore
Distributed by	The Weinstein Company Lions Gate
Release dates	/ June 29, 2007
Language	English

For other uses, see Sicko.

Sicko is a documentary film by Michael Moore, scheduled for release on June 29 2007. It investigates the American health care system with a focus on the behavior of large health insurance companies and contrasts the U.S. system with those of other countries with universal health care coverage.

When asked about this movie, Michael Moore said, "If people ask, we tell them Sicko is a comedy about 45 million people with no health care in the richest country on Earth" On April 19, 2007, Moore announced on his website that Sicko had been selected for the 2007 Cannes Film Festival where it had its world premiere on May 19, 2007. Moore also announced a June 29, 2007 release date for the U.S. and Canada.

MPAA Rating

The MPAA gave Sicko an official rating of PG-13 for Brief Strong Language.

Synopsis

Sicko deals with the problems of the American for-profit health insurance and pharmaceutical industries. Its main message is that government-run health care is a better model than the present US health-care system.

"And the United States slipped to 37 in health care around the world, just slightly ahead of Slovenia," Moore said at one point in the film.

U.S. health-care system

Anecdotes of people denied care

The movie starts retelling the stories of people who were denied health care, either because they did not have health insurance or because the insurance companies found a way not to pay them. (On February 3, 2006, Moore requested, via his blog, that people send "Health Care Horror Stories" in an effort to share his view on the health care industry.)

In one case, Doug Noe's insurance provider, Cigna Healthcare, approved a cochlear ear implant for only the left ear of Noe's daughter, Annette, born with an acute hearing disability. Cigna argued that a two-ear operation was "experimental." (When Noe alerted Moore to the case, the insurer reversed its decision.)

In other cases, a woman gets stuck with the ambulance bill after a car accident because she didn't clear the charge with her insurer before losing consciousness; also shown is the widow of Tracy Pierce, who died from kidney cancer after his insurer denied a possibly life-saving bone-marrow transplant; one woman's insurance provider denied coverage after an operation, because she didn't mention a previous yeast infection on her application.

The movie also recounts a situation in which homeless patients were abandoned by Los Angeles hospitals after they had received some medical treatment. (In May 2007, Kaiser Permanente, a large nonprofit health insurer, settled criminal and civil lawsuits by agreeing to establish new rules for discharging homeless patients; paying $55,000 in fines; covering the city attorney’s investigative costs; and spending $500,000 on the homeless for follow-up care and other services.)

Accounts from inside insurance companies

Some former "repented" employees of insurance companies are also interviewed, and describe dubious practices of their former employers, such as considering the best doctor the one who could best dismiss a patient.

One scene shows a clip of Congressional testimony given in 1996. Dr. Linda Peeno, a former medical reviewer for the health insurer Humana, said her job was to save money for the company. "I denied a man a necessary operation", she testified, referring to a decision she made in 1987. (Her testimony "has been widely recounted over the years," according to a news article in The New York Times. A spokesman for Humana said the case Peeno referred to had involved whether a man had coverage that would pay for a heart transplant, and Peeno correctly found the insurance didn't cover the procedure.)

Washington lobbyists and politicians

The movie describes then the connection between lobby groups such as PhRMA, the largest and most powerful lobbyist block in Washington D.C., and political groups; Hillary Clinton is accused of being a sell-out for accepting financing for her campaign from the pharmaceutical industry, even if she had tried to introduce full coverage when she had become first lady.

Health-care systems elsewhere

The American system is then compared to those of Canada, the United Kingdom and France, which have free and full coverage for their citizens, including interviews with Tony Benn, members of the local middle class and Americans residing in those countries. Moore tries, among other things, to locate a place where British have to pay something in a hospital (finding a counter labeled "Cashier", only to find that patients actually get money there to reimburse their trip to the hospital).

He also rides along in a 24-hour French house-call service in which a doctor with a company called "SOS Médecins" visits patients at their homes. The doctor rides around Paris at night, taking dispatch calls like a taxi driver.

Moore finds out that French government helpers literally "do the laundry" for new mothers to support them.

Some volunteers who lent their help during the World Trade Center attacks of 2001, and who subsequently developed a series of medical conditions (some physical and some psychological), are then presented. Since they are not firefighters, they are not government employees and the government will not provide care for their ailments.

Since the US government declared that the enemy combatants detained at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay detainment camp have full medical coverage, Moore takes three ships and sails from Miami for Cuba (even if the details of the trip are not revealed, ostensibly because of a ban imposed by the Department of Homeland Security). Arrived at the entrance channel to Gitmo, on a different boat (clearly waving the flag of Cuba), Moore tries to ask for access with a megaphone, but no response is given and they finally give up when a siren is blown from the base.

The group then moves on to Havana, where they can receive free medical treatment they would otherwise not be able to afford. They are hospitalised there and receive treatment, having only to provide their names and birth date. Moore declares he asked the doctors to provide them only the same level of care they would give to Cuban citizens. He also interviews the daughter of Che Guevara, who grew to become a pediatrician (Ernesto Guevara was in fact a physician himself).

Although trip participants signed confidentiality agreements prohibiting them from talking about the trip, some thought the trip a success, with The New York Post quoting John Feal, head of the Fealgood Foundation which raises money for 9/11 first responders, that “From what I hear through the grapevine those people who went [to Cuba with Moore] are utterly happy."

Moore helping a critic

The film's finale is what Moore provides as an example of "taking care of each other, no matter the differences". When the director found out that the website moorewatch.com would have to close because webmaster Jim Kenefick needed money to pay his sick wife's medical bills, he sent an anonymous check for US$12,000. However, Jim Kenefick disputes Moore's portrayal of the event, and now claims that other donors had provided the necessary funds to maintain the website, although he singled out Moore and a second anonymous benefactor for praise in an earlier entry in which he appealed for a miracle.

Reception

The movie has received positive reviews: following early viewings at the Cannes Film Festival, Variety described Sicko "an affecting and entertaining dissection of the American health care industry", concluding it should play well internationally. Moore has nonetheless been quoted as saying, "I know the storm awaits me back in the United States."

In his New York Times review, critic A.O. Scott said the movie is "the funniest and the most tightly edited" of any Moore film to date.

A Fox News review reported, "Filmmaker Michael Moore's brilliant and uplifting new documentary, "Sicko," deals with the failings of the U.S. healthcare system, both real and perceived. But this time around, the controversial documentarian seems to be letting the subject matter do the talking, and in the process shows a new maturity."

British film magazine Empire commented that "Sicko is the film that truly reveals Moore as an auteur."

On May 19, 2007 more than 2,000 people applauded loudly after the film's first Cannes screening at the packed Grand Theatre Lumiere, the main festival auditorium.

The North American premiere of Sicko was held in London, Ontario at the Silver City movie theatre at Masonville Place on June 8 2007, with Moore himself in attendance. Sicko features patients from the London, Ontario area.

As of June 23, 2007 Sicko receives a 88% rating on Rotten Tomatoes earning the film a "fresh" designation. The consensus statement on Sicko is that it is "A devastating, convincing, and very entertaining documentary."

Controversies over the film Sicko

Main article: Controversies over the film Sicko

Piracy

Although the film is scheduled to be released on June 29 2007, the film was leaked onto the internet in early to mid June 2007. Moore, who previously stated his support for internet downloading, denies leaking the video himself and an investigation has been held as to the source of the internet leak[6].

Treasury Department probe

In a May 2, 2007 letter, the Office of Foreign Assets Control informed Moore that he was the subject of a civil investigation stemming from the filmmaker's March trip to Cuba. In the letter to Moore, a Treasury official noted that the department had no record of Moore obtaining a license that authorized him to "engage in travel-related transactions involving Cuba," alleging that Moore violated the United States embargo against Cuba. A duplicate master copy of the film is being held in Canada in case American authorities attempt to seize the film as part of the criminal investigation against Moore that arose from taking American 9/11 rescue workers to Cuba for medical treatment.

See also

• Healthcare in the United States
• Healthcare in Cuba
• Canadian and American health care systems compared
• Category:Healthcare in France
• Category:Healthcare in the United Kingdom

External links

• Sicko Official movie website, including trailer
• Sicko at Rotten Tomatoes
• Sicko trailer at YouTube
• Sicko at IMDb
• Sicko? The truth about the US healthcare system at The Independent
• Democracy Now Amy Goodman interviews Michael Moore on Sicko
• Sicko at DVD Talk

Reviews

• The New York Times, June 22, 2007 – Review of Sicko by By A. O. Scott