Michael Moore's Sicko Takes Aim at the American Healthcare Industry

Guerilla filmmaker Michael Moore is back, with what some might consider the third part of his anti-Bush trilogy of Bowling For Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, and now, Sicko. All three films take gratuitous (if not unfair) shots at the current administration, and all three are likely to irritate the blood of the dyed-in-the-wool conservative who is most definitely not Moore's prime audience.

But while Fahrenheit made its mission the dismantling of the notion that our reasons for being in Iraq are pure, and while Columbine argued that the climate of fear the administration has created led to Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, Sicko makes a far broader damnation, and is the more powerful film for it.

Liberals and conservatives alike have taken it on the chin in Moore's latest. Early in the film he sets Hilary Clinton up as the angel of modern day democracy, in what a cautious viewer might see as an overt advertisement for Moore's preferred candidate in the upcoming election. But just as quickly as Moore sets Mrs. Clinton up as the bearer of truth and justice in a land full of wealthy white men, he knocks her off her throne with the revelation that, in the end, she was paid for her silence as well.

Silence about what? Well, healthcare, of course. Or, more specifically, the way healthcare in America has been sold to the insurance and pharmaceutical companies, leaving the average, insured American with plenty to be angry about. And anger is the emotion this film is aiming to inspire. Within the first ten minutes, we meet a man who has lost two fingers to a table saw while doing some carpentry in his garage. He goes to the hospital, uninsured, and is given a choice by the doctors. Save the middle finger for $60,000, or save the ring finger for $12,000. Visions of a new car for the family in his head, the man opts to save the ring finger. The middle finger, Moore tells us through his dry narration, now resides in an East Jersey landfill.

But it is not this man's story that drives us mad while watching the film. It is story after story of average, insured Americans, who are jilted out of the proper care they require because the health insurance companies are trying to save a buck. Pre-existing conditions, minor omissions during the application process, and "experimental procedures" are some of the tricks the insurance companies use to get out of paying for surgeries, sometimes resulting in the loss of life.

Moore takes us to Canada, France, and London to see what it's like to live under the oppression of socialized medicine. Unsurprisingly, everyone he talks to seems to like it quite a bit. I am no socialist, and I love this country, but it is difficult to watch parts of this film and not experience the slightest twinge of hostility towards our system. But this is Michael Moore's brilliance, and the power of a great documentary filmmaker. He can weave a brilliant polemic, and leave most of your better arguments wilting on the floor by the time you're done watching his films. And really, when it's all said and done with, this is what great debates are about. Do I agree with everything Michael Moore says? Absolutely not. Will you? Absolutely not. But you should see this movie, if only because it will make you think and it will make you angry, and it's a good dose of cheap, prescription-strength medicine to innoculate yourself against the IQ loss that can come with a steady stream of Transformers and Spider-Man.