Product Description

Following on the heels of his Palm d'Or winning Fahrenheit 9/11 and his Oscar winning film Bowling for Columbine acclaimed filmmaker Michael Moore's new documentary sets out to investigate the American healthcare system. Sticking to his tried-and-true one-man approach Moore sheds light on the complicated medical affairs of individuals and local communities. System Requirements:Run Time: 123 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES/POLITICS Rating: PG-13 UPC: 796019807500 Manufacturer No: 80750

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #214 in DVD
• Brand: WELLSPRING/GENIUS
• Released on: 2007-11-06
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French, Russian, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 123 minutes

Amazon.com
SiCKO is more like a controlled howl of protest than a documentary. Toning down the rhetoric of past efforts--no CEOs, congressmen, or celebrities were accosted in the making of this film--Michael Moore's latest provocation is just as heartfelt, if not more heartbreaking. As he clarifies from the outset, his subject isn't the 45 million Americans without insurance, but those whose coverage has failed to meet their needs. He starts by speaking with patients who've been denied life-saving procedures, like chemotherapy, for the most spurious of reasons. Then he travels to Canada, England, and France to see if socialized medicine is as inefficient as U.S. politicians like to claim--especially those who receive funding from pharmaceutical companies. Moore finds quality care available to all, regardless as to income. He concludes with a stunt that made headlines when he assembles a group of 9/11 rescue workers suffering from a variety of afflictions. When Moore is informed that detainees at Guantánamo Bay--technically American soil--qualify for universal coverage, he and his companions travel to Cuba to get in on that action. It's a typically grandstanding move on Moore's part. And it proves remarkably effective when these altruistic individuals, who've either been denied treatment or forced to pay outrageous costs for their medication, experience a dramatically different system. Nine years in the making, SiCKO makes a persuasive case that it's time for America to catch up with the rest of the world. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Customer Reviews

You will get this film when it happens to you!!!!
I've yet to see this film but being a Moore fan i know i will appreciate his point of view. I have worked in the medical feld for eight year and know about insurance companies and their little games. I also was recently attacked by a pitbull and of course no owner was around. So you can guess who got stuck with the medical bills. I was bit in the arm and my dog was also bit. I refused the ambulance because i knew they would bill me $500 to take me to the hospital and i said no way!!!. I didnt have insurance and still dont. I did apply for something called Charity Care and they did absorb most of my bills. But there is still a $210 bill from the doctor and at least $200 left over. Do i appreciate this? yes but do i feel i'am responsible NO. I think its unfair that i was a victim and i have no one to sue for it and they have the nerve to bill me. Not only that i had to receive painful Rabies shots(about 10 of them) and i had to take my dog to the vet. Now i'am very careful in taking care of myself and not getting sick because i know that i can't afford it. This is a shame and this country should be ashamed of it as well.

Shocking And Enlightening.
When thinking about it most people outside the U.S. would be shocked and appalled at the blatant uncaring nature of the American Health Service. I can't honestly imagine being denied Health Care because of money troubles. I suppose that I should consider myself lucky that I live in the UK, a country that puts a persons health before a profit.

Many people claim Moore to be a propagandist who's just utilising this subject matter in order to make a quick dollar. That may be true, but there's no denying that he brings to light some of the real injustices of the world. Fahrenheit 9/11 was Moore's biggest success and became the most successful documentary of all time. That was for a reason. It showed the blatant government corruption and stupidity when relating to the 9/11 attacks and the war on terror. Sicko is along the same lines, yet it focuses on government corruption, stupidity and greed when relating to the health of the American people.

Sicko is a two hour piece that manages to hold my attention throughout, even for a documentary. It gives a good blend of true life emotional stories and satirical interviewing when Moore, playing the stupid American, interviews Doctors in countries that have free health care. One of the more shocking segments is showing that Hillary Rodham Clinton used to fight for free universal Health care. It shows how she was bought out by the American Medical Association, simply showing that even those who pretend to care have a price.

We are given an insight into the insurance companies who claim they exist through simply caring for the people. That's not the case though, as we were given a list of pre-existing medical conditions which could exempt an American citizen from getting insured. It showed how actual Doctors who got into profession to help people, were denying insurance claims simply to make the companies more money. At times this would even cost a patient their life.

During the documentary we are also shown how Americans were convinced universal Health care was a bad idea, by labelling it Socialist Medical Care. This idea convinced people that if they didn't have the type of system that have today, then it would take away their freedom to choose which doctor they could be treated by or which Hospital they could be treated in. In this a video is played which shows how this system first began through the power of Richard Nixon. This system was brought about through the idea that giving people less care would increase profits. The land of the free and home of the brave indeed.

A truly shocking and at times upsetting documentary that everyone needs to see. The sad thing is that Moore's documentary wont change a thing with the Medical system.

Bull S...o
Another Michael Moore propaganda piece. The film is presented as a series of interviews and, as such, artfully mixes truth with falsehood. It is quite true, as Moore presents at the beginning of the film, that the present U.S. insurance programs, both private and public, are an abomination. It is altogether possible to be financially broken when hit by a serious disease. Equally bad is that insurance companies oftentimes deny insurance to people with preexisting causes i.e. the people who need it the most.

At this point Moore verges into outright propaganda. He interviews multiple people, foreigners and American ex-pats, about the wonderful and free medical systems of Canada, England, France and, get this, Cuba. There isn't one person interviewed who presents a contrary view. Foreign nationalized medicine is terrific and the U.S. medical system sucks.

Well, the U.S. medical system does, in many cases, suck but a really honest examination of the systems in these various other countries will reveal something other than the medical nirvana that Moore paints them to be. These systems are acceptable for minor illnesses but, should you be struck down by something really serious, you'll be looking for a ticket home to the U.S. as quickly as possible.

Moore strongly suggests that a U.S. nationalized medical system will be far better than the present one. First, it will be free...less BS and paperwork. It seems that Mr. Moore knows little of government bureaucracy. The more government the more oversight, administrators, bureaucrats and paperwork. It's inevitable. It's the way governments always works. On the positive side, however, medicine will be 'free'. Really? All the expertise, specialized equipment, modern therapies and highly researched medicine are free? Plus the bureaucracy to administer the whole thing? Free?

It's never free and taxpayer, in general, it will pay plenty. The only way to reduce the cost...even a little...is to decrease services drastically. The patient will pay with delays and reduced level of care but, hey, if it's free it's gotta be great.

What's the solution? I don't have a good one. Medical costs have gone out the roof because of the development of increasingly sophisticated and expensive medical technology. Shall we throw these technologies out in the interest of 'free' nationalized medicine? Another reason that medical care is increasingly expensive IS because of third party payers like insurance companies and government. The physician and doctor are financially disconnected from the patient which removes one form of governor on medical costs.

Ron Braithwaite author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico