Review of Sicko (2007) by Bill — 27 Jun 2007

... and blind allegiance to a cruel, duplicitous and abusive agitprop filmmaker is even funnier (sadder?) than blind patriotism. After all, stickin' it to the man has GOT to be justified, right? Well, no.

The problem with Moore's latest exercise in this tired genre is that it's, well, wrong on essentially everything. I will, however, give him three stars for at least raising the topic on film.

David Denby's New Yorker review is spot on and rehashes what any intelligent viewer noted by the time of "Bowling For Columbine" if not right off the bat in "Roger & Me"..

. that Moore is not only transparently manipulative but fundamentally misanthropic. Ever notice how routinely he uses and discards the weakest people whom he dragoons into his films? As for international realities.

.. take it from someone who has actually lived them in two of the countries Moore profiles. What a surprise that British doctors make a comfortable six-figure salary. Does it occur to anyone that this is because the state must compete with the parallel private British mdical system for talent? As an NHS customer in the early '90s I can tell you that I would have been on the first plane from London to New York had I gotten seriosuly ill.

Fortunately the private sector forced the gov't to reform the NHS because it was so incredibly bad. Today it has improved dramatically to mediocre. And as for Canada (where I currently live) it might be more enlightening to consult nationwide statistics on ER waiting times (closer to 5-12 hours) than to cherry pick a London, Ontario ER and find that no one has been there for longer than 45 mins.

Any guesses on how many ERs Moore had to film before finding that outlier? And what a stunning revelation to find that certain American HMOs and managed care organizations abuse(d) customers? Be glad you're American so that you have a choice to switch to another provider (like a PPO, for example.

.. you get what you pay for.) Guess what happens in workers' paradises like Canada and Cuba when you get abused? You have no alternative. At best, you wait. And sometimes get crippled (like my friend with a separated shoulder who waited six months to see an orthpedist for proper treatment.

) Sometimes you die. If you must, see "Sicko" (as I did) on You Tube; spare yourself the commute to and from the cinema and the crime of funding the national embarrassment that is Michael Moore.

A better use of your three hours, however, is to actually learn something about American health care and how to reform it by reading Canadian doctor (and New York resident) Brian Gratzer's "The Cure," recently published in hardback.

People around the world these days say that Americans are on average naive, gullible dupes. I disagree strongly based on extensive experience; however, the continuing domestic popularity of Michael Moore makes me wonder.

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