Moore: America's Health Care Plan is Still Sick

Jason Pyles Movie Critic

O Masterpiece
X Excellent
O Rental
O OK
O Mediocrity
O Avoid

When my wife and I were on vacation in Cancun, Mexico, I dropped our room key into the deep end of the hotel's swimming pool. I had to dive several times, about 12-feet down to retrieve the key. Though I didn't know it at the time, the water pressure packed the naturally-occurring ear wax deep inside my ear.

We got the stupid key, but I felt like I had a guinea pig stuffed in my ear. And again, we were in Mexico. Now, I don't need to write it; you're already thinking it. But desperate times call for desperate measures. And despite my fears of the Mexican health care system, I was even more afraid of my newfound hearing loss.

Luckily, my bilingual wife skillfully navigated our way into one Dr. Martinez's office. I filled out a simple form and waited about 15 minutes. Doc Martinez curó my ear in five minutes, and it only cost me about $40 USD. It was all said and done within 20 minutes of entering that office. Indeed, it was easily one of the best experiences I've had at a doctor's office, and not to belabor the point, but I was in Mexico!

In his 2007 documentary, Sicko, Michael Moore gives us plenty of similar examples, where the international health care that we often scoff at is superior, in just about every way, to ours in America.

But maybe you've already decided to boycott Michael Moore films. I can understand. He is a master of spin, a manipulator, an agitator, a truth-bender, and some would even say he's a flat-out liar, on occasion. I get it. I wouldn't typically call myself a Michael Moore fan. On the other hand, I can't deny that he is an effective documentarist. (And if you're a purist who refuses to call his films documentaries, then he's an effective propaganda filmmaker.)

Others accuse Moore of being anti-American. All I can say is he either truly hates America, or he loves it enough to want to make it better. I like to believe it's the latter, but you may disagree. Regardless of how you feel about Moore, Sicko is required viewing because it addresses some problems that can no longer be denied. Even amid Moore's tangents, axes to grind, and blatantly manipulative filmmaking, he lifts up some rocks that we should force ourselves to look under, as well. The film's tagline is "This might hurt a little." How true. It does.

At one point during the film, Moore refers to Bill Clinton's administration when Hillary Clinton was our country's First Lady, a time when "health care for everyone" was her top priority. She was a tireless force, pushing for a government-run health care system that many equated with socialized medicine, a term, Moore points out, that seems to be a dirty word in our country.

The flamboyant filmmaker's apparent pride in Hillary Clinton's quest is quickly replaced by his disappointed claims of the health care industry's congressional buyout: Yes, Moore indicates that "for her silence, Hillary was rewarded as the second-largest recipient in the Senate from the health care industry's contributions," a sum totaling $854,462, according to the figures in Sicko.

And it begs the question, in this election year, what is Senator Clinton's plan for health care now? According to her Web site, the New York senator is proposing the "American Health Choices Plan," a program that "covers all Americans and improves health care by lowering costs and improving quality." Upon visiting this site, you'll see that she claims it's affordable (by using a tax credit system), available (no discrimination and pre-existing conditions are OK), and it's portable (lose your job, keep your health care). Clinton's plan is also supposed to be "good for small businesses" and "reins in insurance companies."

What about her opponent, Barack Obama? His Web site also indicates that his plan "begins by covering every American." Smaller premiums are promised. And those with pre-existing conditions won't be turned away. Obama also uses the words "affordable" and "portable," and he suggests that costs can be lowered by modernizing our health care system.

These two Democrats have some obvious similarities between their plans -- the major difference is that Sen. Clinton's plan requires individuals to be insured through a mandate, whereas Sen. Obama only places a mandate on children.

But what about the Republicans? John McCain's site features his "Straight Talk on Health System Reform," which pinpoints "the fundamental problem" as the "rapidly rising cost of U.S. health care." McCain says he wants to save Medicare and Medicaid, as well as protect the private health benefits for retirees. He also gives a big push for ensuring that families are in charge of their own health care funds, which will ultimately give them more control.

Though he is now out of the race, Mike Huckabee's health care checklist found on his Web site tells us that the "health care system in this country is irrevocably broken, in part because it is only a 'health care' system, not a 'health' system." Huckabee's site suggests that we should focus more on preventative health care. He says we don't need universal health care mandated by federal edict.

But Michael Moore disagrees. He tells us that one out of nearly 50 million Americans will not have health insurance this year, meaning 2007. And of those 50 million, 18,000 Americans will die because they are uninsured, Moore says. By painting a depressingly bleak picture using several individual horror stories from the United States, Sicko takes us to Canada, Britain, France, and Cuba, citing many happy stories from people who are pleased as punch with their universal health care systems.

Meanwhile, in America, there's Rich, an uninsured man who took off the tops of two fingers with his table saw. He was told that for $60,000, he could have his middle finger re-attached. And for $12,000, he could have his ring finger re-attached. "Because he's a romantic," Moore tells us, "he chose his ring finger." And a bit overdramatically, Moore informs us that the tip of Rich's middle finger was now somewhere in an Oregon landfill.

Sicko skillfully provides many contrasting examples that have opposite outcomes, which stirs us emotionally. For example, while Rich the American only had one finger re-attached, Brad the Canadian had five amputated fingers, and he got them all back in a 24-hour surgery, which was basically free. And perhaps most effectively, the film contrasts the treatment of the Sept. 11 heroes, the rescue workers, who suffer from chronic respiratory illness, with the treatment the United States gives to known terrorists incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay, our military prison in Cuba.

Similar to the way Sergei Eisenstein used collision editing in Battleship Potemkin (1925) in hopes of stirring a revolution, Moore uses colliding stories, many of which are heartbreaking, to rouse our anger, compassion, and oddly, our sense of humor.

But as far as documentary filmmakers go, Moore's strongest arrow in his quiver is his careful selection of his soundtrack or, in this case, "mood music." An incredible example of this coincides with the most disturbing part of the film: We're shown rough surveillance footage of a wandering, obviously unwell woman in a hospital gown who was dumped on Skid Row because she had no insurance and couldn't pay her bill. Had Moore given us some silly, comical music, this scene could have been amusing for some viewers. But instead Moore chose a sad, eerie instrumental song that conjures pity and fear within us, making the unclear figure seem like a haunting apparition.

Sicko was recently among the nominees for “Best documentary feature” at the 80th Annual Academy Awards, but it lost to Taxi to the Dark Side, an alarming film about an Afghan taxi driver who was tortured to death in an American prison. Sicko deserved to be among last year’s celebrated documentaries, for it effectively and stylishly presents and stirs debate about a real problem, namely America’s broken health care system.

Moore maintains his usual acute indictment of the problematic “American way,” just as he did in Bowling for Columbine (2002). He blends the humorous with the ironic, with the infuriating. But Moore’s film strays here and there, losing focus and therefore, losing some power. However, despite its occasional wandering, Sicko successfully documents a major concern that we should all keep in mind during this election year: Our health care system is not well, and it’s going to take a lot more than just a Band-Aid to fix it.

Directed by Michael Moore
Michael Moore / Reggie Cervantes / John Graham
Documentary | 123 min.
MPAA: PG-13 (for brief strong language)

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