America is full of Sickos

Last night I had a chance to catch a sneak preview of Sicko with fellow SNFC‘ers Brock and Schmitty. After seeing the film, I’m virtually speechless. My first impression of the film in a single word: “Wow”. Now, I’ll admit to not being Moore’s biggest fan. I liked “Roger & Me”, but I believe Moore tends to dominate his films unnecessarily, and use film making techniques that aren’t completely honest. Like Spike Lee, Moore occasionally leaves an imprint on the film more indelible than the underlying storytelling. As Lee did in taking a step back in his masterful “When the Levees Broke“, Moore exercises a decidedly lighter and less strident touch in the film. In doing so, he allows the story to unfurl in a more organic fashion.

Sicko is Moore’s indictment of the American healthcare system. Moore quietly rails against all the players, from the insurance companies who allow people to die in the interest of profit to the politicians who enable corporate interests to set healthcare policy for all Americans. His examples are heartbreaking. He profiles a couple who had good, middle-class jobs and health insurance, only to see copays and deductibles bankrupt them after the husband suffers 3 heart attacks and his wife contracts cancer. They’re then forced to sell their home and move in with one of their children. The most troubling examples are those of the volunteer firefighters and EMTs who worked in the rubble of the World Trade Center in the weeks and months following 9/11, only to see their healthcare needs go unmet after developing medical problems years later. No Michael Moore film would be complete without something resembling a publicity stunt; in this case, his stunt becomes a mission of mercy. Moore takes several of the people profiled in the film to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in the hopes that he can obtain for them the same level of healthcare being provided to the enemy combatants detained there. When he’s turned away, he takes them into mainland Cuba and discovers that the Cuban health system welcomes them with open arms. As poor as Cuba may be because of the continued US-led embargo, their healthcare system seems to be surprisingly robust. A $120 inhaler used by one of the volunteers, Reggie Cervantes, costs pennies in Cuba.

The film’s most touching scene occurs when the members of a Cuban fire station ask to meet the 9/11 workers. Despite the years of enmity between our governments, the Cubans regard their American counterparts as heroes. They say that they felt the loss of the firefighters and policemen at the World Trade Center as if it were their own that had perished. They reaffirm that first responders the world over form a unique fraternity of those willing to risk everything in service of their fellow men & women.

The stories of healthcare industry abuse of patients is appalling, even to someone who regards himself as a hardened cynic. Hospitals dumping homeless and indigent patients on Skid Row because they’re unable to pay for their care, to insurance companies denying coverage because a patient is “too young” to have cervical cancer, to the myriad examples of proven treatments being rejected as “experimental” because of their expense. How about the patients who are denied coverage because they’re “too fat” (at 5’2″ and 175 lbs) or “too thin” (6 feet and 130 lbs)? A doctor testifies before Congress that Humana gave bonuses to the staff physicians who rejected the highest percentage of claims. Moore even digs into the tape archives of the Nixon White House to find Nixon endorsing HMOs because their business model is to deny service to its customers, and then turning around and giving a flag-waving speech to the American public that he’s backing HMOs because he wants America to have the best possible medical care.

Why can’t we have universal health care? I know I’d be willing to pay more taxes to provide good cradle to grave and preventative healthcare to ALL Americans. Why do the citizens of Canada and the UK and France enjoy better healthcare and greater life expectancies than the citizens of the richest country in the world? Why can we spend nearly half a trillion dollars (and counting) on the invasion and occupation of a country that posed little threat to us, yet we can’t provide decent medical care to our poor to to those we call heroes? When is America going to wake up and take control of Congress from the corporate interests? When are we going to rally on the Mall and march on the Capitol (or the White House), demanding decent healthcare for all? Failing that, who wants to move to Europe with me?

I could live without some of Moore’s theatrical interludes, clips excerpted from old movies and/or propaganda films to inject humor into his message. I don’t really think they’re necessary. I feel like his touch was light enough to allow the story to tell itself. Cinema snobery aside, Sicko is a powerful and important film. I know I haven’t been consistent in posting a Hero of the Week on a regular basis, but Michael Moore deserves special recognition as my Hero of the Month.