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Reflection Sicko

The documentary Sicko by Michael Moore highlights issues with the U.S. healthcare system. At the time of filming in 2007, 50 million Americans lacked health insurance. The film shows how many insured Americans still face large medical costs due to limited insurance coverage and high drug prices. Moore contrasts this with universal healthcare systems in countries like Canada, England, France, and Cuba where citizens have greater access to affordable care. While the Affordable Care Act increased coverage, the U.S. system prioritizes profits over patients' well-being. The film argues the U.S. should adopt a single-payer model to ensure healthcare is available to all.

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175 views4 pages

Reflection Sicko

The documentary Sicko by Michael Moore highlights issues with the U.S. healthcare system. At the time of filming in 2007, 50 million Americans lacked health insurance. The film shows how many insured Americans still face large medical costs due to limited insurance coverage and high drug prices. Moore contrasts this with universal healthcare systems in countries like Canada, England, France, and Cuba where citizens have greater access to affordable care. While the Affordable Care Act increased coverage, the U.S. system prioritizes profits over patients' well-being. The film argues the U.S. should adopt a single-payer model to ensure healthcare is available to all.

Uploaded by

Vincent Francis
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Reflection: Sicko

Student Name

Institution
Sicko

The film by Michael Moore sheds light on the issue of healthcare insurance in the United

States. The film was produced in 2007 at a time when about 50 million Americans did not have

healthcare insurance or a way of getting it. For this group, their likelihood of getting sick and

dying was always higher. Michael Moore asserts that of the 50 million who had no healthcare

insurance, 18 million were expected to die.

The main focus of the film is the plight of the over 250 million Americans who have

healthcare insurance. Having healthcare insurance can be viewed as something positive but the

reality is different for most Americans. Most of the Americans that are insured discover that their

insurance policies are worthless after investigators come up with endless lists of conditions and

procedures that cannot be covered under different circumstances. In certain cases, patients are

often unaware of any preexisting conditions that they might have or should know about. As a

result, many end up being disqualified or forced to pay large sums of money. In the film, there is

a woman who was forced to pay for ambulance services for simply not requesting for

authorization before using it. At the time she called the ambulance, there was no possible way

she could have requested for approval. This demonstrates that the conditions are put in place not

to help the patients but profit the service providers.

Another issue that is clearly portrayed by Moore in the film is high drug prices by

pharmaceuticals. Drug companies rely on high drug prices to generate more profit and funds for

their research and development efforts. Some of the drugs are usually included in the insurance

coverage but due to higher prices, some of the insured end up not using them. Revenue from

high drug prices is also used for advertising and promotion, bonuses to stockholders,

multimillion-dollar executive salaries, and palatial offices.


In the film, Moore visits the countries of Cuba, Canada, France, and England. These

countries all offer their citizens with universal health care. The cost of healthcare in these

countries is low when compare to the United States. Additionally, these countries have a longer

life expectancy and lower infant mortality ratio when compared to the United States. These

countries have a socialized medicine system where people are denied from choosing their

preferred hospitals or doctors. Despite this evil, the system guarantees people free healthcare,

contrary to what is used in the United States.

Even though the film was produced in 2007, it is still applicable today. In 2007, the

United States had no law that directed how healthcare insurance would be provided to people.

During the Obama Administration, the Affordable Care Act was passed. The ACA helped

increase the number of people that have healthcare insurance. Despite this milestone, the

problems that the insured had in the past still apply to this era. The healthcare system in the

United States is motivated by profit making.

The aim of healthcare insurance should be to reduce the financial burden a patient faces

when opting to pay out of his or her pocket. In the United States, the situation is different.

Regardless of whether one has healthcare insurance or not, the likelihood of paying high fees is

high. The United States should adopt a system similar to that practiced in Cuba, Canada,

England, and France where every citizen does not have to worry about the cost of healthcare.

The United States is the richest country in the world and can easily afford to take care of the

healthcare needs of its people.


Reference

SiCKO | dir. Michael Moore | 2007. Vimeo. (2021). Retrieved 10 May 2021, from

https://vimeo.com/76646445.

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