Michael Moore's "Sicko" - A Review

I recently had the opportunity to see Michael Moore’s “Sicko” and found that it was more than a provocative indictment of our heath care system it was in fact a reality check on our very system of values - especially those "family values" that the religious right keeps spewing about when they’re not paying for sex. Indeed “family values” is nothing more than bile spewed by politicians of the “do as I say, not as I do” mold.

The film itself is a montage of personal horror stories with a dash of political snippets that are responsible for this nightmare which places a higher value over denying health care benefits over providing services for that human life and mixed in are few comparisons between the health care system of other industrialized nations and the “greatest country on earth” in which the former exposes the illusion of the later.

Moore's film provides an opportunity for the open mind to view that illusion and experience the breadth of an emotional spectrum from anger and outrage to laughter at the absurdity. Turns out that in some European countries, the birth of a child costs the parents nothing for the hospital, nor for the visiting nurse during the first week mother and child are home to help with the transition to parenthood, nor for the worker who helps the mother cook and clean, nor for the year off the mother stays at home, nor for any subsequent child care, nor for that child's future health needs, nor for that child's future college education.

Now THAT is a system based on family values and not the bullshit rhetoric that we are subjected to here in puritanical America where the sin of hypocrisy is forgiven by their Jesus on a daily basis. We have no family values when children in our society do not have health insurance. We have no family values when both parents are forced to work in most cases and leave their child in someone else’s care. We have no family values when we have to go into debt to afford a quality education for our children.

While Moore is sanctimonious at times – hey it’s his movie but at least he knew enough to keep it at a minimum. If there is any complaint or disappointment I experienced it would be that Moore made minimal use of graphs reflecting statistical information which would at least quantify the cost in dollars for universal health care here based on a combination of the best aspects of universal health care in the industrialized world today. Indeed based on real “family values”. Then close the movie with the cost of our war with Iraq and let the audience figure out that the 200 billion dollars plus we spend on death and destruction can be better spent on life worth living.

indeed I think the movie should be a mandatory movie in all middle-schools or at least high schools - because too many Americans have this "we're #1" mentality - Moore’s "Sicko" will correct that illusion - "we're not #1 - but we could be" - if we decide to spend 2 billion dollars a week on promoting "family values" here at home instead of death and destruction abroad.