Sicko

As an American this movie was one of the most depressing movies I've seen in awhile. Bowling for Columbine doesn't even hold a candle to the disheartening realizations contained in this film. I walked away with a sick taste in my mouth having been reminded of how disgusting and heartless our bottom line policy making is. How sick it is to be imprisoned by the government through healthcare. How the healthcare system will tear down every other joy in your life until your 80, working 50 hours a week to pay the cost of staying alive, unable to stand against the rich or have the hope left to vote. Thus the propaganda arm of the American Dream prevails. I don't plan to watch this movie again until I obtain citizenship in Britain, France, Cuba… or Ron Paul could get elected president and as a former physician he might actually fix the system.

I've seen a lot of movies that either make fun or try to exemplify American stupidity, but none convinced me of it unless I've seen Sicko. How can you people put up with this?! The medical system portrayed in this film is worst than here in Romania!

Basically, it tells about the medical system being bought and used by insurance companies to trick people into paying huge sums of money for any medical care, regardless of them having a medical insurance or not. Then there are examples of the Canadian, French, British and Cuban health care systems, which are, as I think they should be, free and of high quality.

And the logic is very simple, even if one chooses to disregard the highly emotional examples presented by Moore: people who win money from not taking care of you will not take care of you.

Take care!

Please, cast aside your prejudices and watch this film with an open mind. I personally do not like Michael Moore whatsoever, but this film is mind blowing. I hope that that including quotes from the movie is not considered spoiling it.

Feb 17th, 1971 5:23 P.M.

Ehrlichman : "We have now narrowed down the vice president's problems on this thing to one issue, and that is whether we should include these Health Maintenance Organizations like Edgar Kaiser's Permenente thing." President Nixon : "Let me ask you, you know I'm not too keen on any of these damn medical programs." Ehrlichman : " This is a private enterprise one." Nixon : "Well, that appeals to me." Ehrlichman : " Edgar Kaiser is running this permanente thing for profit. And the reason he can do it... I had Edgar Kaiser come in, and talk to me about this... And I went into some depth... All the incentives are toward less medical care, because the less care they give them, the more money they make." Nixon : "Fine." Ehrlichman : " And the incentives run the right way." Nixon : "Not bad."

I just got done watching this movie and no other movie I have seen in my life has had the impact on me that this movie has had.

My wife has M.S. and requires a LOT of medical treatment. Just ONE of her many prescriptions is a thousand (US) dollars a month. This very expensive experimental drug is nothing more than an old flu shot they are experimenting with. ( seriously )

I am a middle class skilled worker with great insurance.. and I may soon be homeless due in part to this. The other part is due to the corrupt banking system that I hope one day gets equally exposed.

I am now officially embarrassed to be a US citizen. If it wasn't for me already being middle aged and having 15 years seniority in a job I cannot replace... I would forever leave this so called "Free Country"

Peace Rich

rich3077@gmail.com

Having read all the comments and reviews, this movie was pretty much what I expected. Moore does a really good job in making his point.

What bothered me a little was his black & white view of the healthcare industry - either it is public OR private. In reality, many western countries have a "hybrid" system. For example here in Finland we have a pretty reasonable public healthcare system (which by the way is not totally free for the patient, albeit very cheap), but in addition, we also have private clinics, if you want even faster service and are willing to pay extra. You can also get an insurance from private companies, which provides extra financial support and/or service in the private clinics in case of illness. Also some workplaces and institutes have free doctors.

A portion of the cost of medicines is substituted by the government in either case, and there is an annual limit after which they are totally substituted.

I think it would be pretty straightforward to establish this kind of system in the US. There is no need to socialize healthcare TOTALLY. There is no need for the insurance company to "go" (as Moore put it), they just need to step aside a little and stop being the main authority. Also, if insurance companies have to compete with FREE (health care), there is only one thing they can do: offer really good service!