Sicko
By Mal Simons, Blockbuster.co.uk

“So, how much did you have to pay for the baby?”

Three years after releasing his highly controversial and shocking documentary about George Bush and the Iraq war Fahrenheit 911, Academy Award® winning filmmaker Michael Moore turns his attention to the American Health Care system. Prepare to be shocked, amused and angered by what he finds.

A few years ago I travelled through the States for the second time – from Boston down to Florida. As I prepared for the trip, realising that I shouldn’t really be going (my second long trip in two years), I decided to cut back on my health insurance package – after all, I’d been to America twice before, ‘wasted’ all that money on health insurance and had been completely fine. But rather typically, after cutting back, like millions of Americans, I found myself ill in the States, without the health insurance that would cover it. It was an expensive visit, one that changed my view of the United States forever. But according to Michael Moore, even if I was American and had purchased the right health insurance package, there is no guarantee that the insurance company would actually have paid up.

“You work three jobs? Uniquely American, isn't it, I mean that is fantastic.” – George W Bush

Rather than concentrating on people like me, who simply did not have valid health insurance, Moore focuses on those who do pay for cover but have problems when attempting to claim. Through the course of 90 minutes, Moore puts the world of American health care into a ring for twelve punishing rounds where he jabs at a system that was recently placed 37th, right above Slovenia by the United Nations.

Posting a request for ‘health horror stories’ on the internet, Moore received over sixty thousand emails in the space of a week. Here, he takes us through case after case of withheld service, insurance company manipulation and greed at the highest level of corporate life and government.

At one point in the film, Moore takes a group of 9/11 workers who have spent all their savings on paying for drugs and treatment due to the effects of dust and chemical inhalation searching the ground zero site for survivors following 9/11, over to Guantanamo Bay. It turns out Guantanamo has the only universal health care system in the United States, offered only to suspected terrorists and enemies of the state. In true Michael Moore fashion, Moore calls out from a boat to the guards at Guantanamo to see his passengers. After being refused, he takes them to Cuba where they are treated and given the drugs that they’ve needed all along.

Moore explores the origins of the Medical system, visits Canada, France and the UK and compares the American system to those of other places in the world. He reveals the roots of the system – how it was come up with (during the Nixon years) and how the billion dollar health care industry has bought the campaigns of many leading politicians. It is breathtaking how much money is spent by the health care industry just on Congress itself.

All in all, a return to form for Michael Moore and certainly his best film since Bowling for Columbine; while less controversial than Fahrenheit 911, this is still pretty controversial stuff if you are in a position of power in America. Sincere, genuine, distressing and entertaining – this comes highly recommended to rent.