I've heard that Cuba's system is good because it involves a lot of preventative care and regular visits to a general practitioner. But I've also heard that families often have to bring common supplied like blankets and pillows to the hospitals for those under a doctor's care.

I'd like to know if Moore compares the technology behind the care. While access to regular doctor visits is great and preventative care means a world of difference, if one has cancer, can they treat it like they do here?

I guess I'm asking if he is comparing health care systems in all ways or if he is trying to play up the haves vs have-nots again. I would want a good comparison to Cuba's cancer survival rates compared to those with and without health care to see if there is any correlation to the access to doctors vs the access to technology.

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1. I think the Cuba part is just thrown in there for a shocker.. Even if they have free healthcare in Cuba, i think that USA will come out a winner if you compare it
on all parts

I think it was a great movie.. and after seeing im greatfull to live in Denmark where there is also free healthcare.. Well not interily free since we pay a lot more tax then you do in the US, but still it looks much better then the american

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I'm Canadian and socialized healthcare rocks. What a freakin' nightmare you guys tolerate! (Yes, we have problems and need reform - that's perpetual in human-designed systems... and some would add in divinely-designed ones too!)

USA is -the- -richest- -nation- -ever-!!! EVER!!!

The only thing that matters about Cuba is: why were they able to equal or beat you in a health-care situation... *even* *once*!!!

Whatever else is bad about their system really doesn't matter as much as the fact that on average the world's richest ever national economy can only produce a comparable level of health care for its citizens. What a hideously inefficient system!!

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I would love to read about Moore once where the writer is creative enough not to use "Love him or hate him"

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Well put, great review.

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Sicko is an enlightening and thought provoking film! In it, Moore does a fantastic job of exposing the shortcomings and downright failures of our system...
But did you know that there is already a Bill in the House that proposes a solution? Its called HR676: National Health Insurance Act and 70+ Reps have already signed on to it!
Go here: http://hr676.theunderrepresented.com/ to ask your rep to support this revolutionary legislation!
HR676 may not be the ultimate final answer to this massive problem, but we need to push Congress to continue the dialogue on this issue now!

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Thank you so much for the review. I hope to see it this weekend. Check out this discussion on Moore and Sicko...there are some interesting thoughts on how Moore's blue-collar Messiah complex is working against him as a director: http://www.unboundedition.com/content/view/1191/50/

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I don't know that I'd say the British health care system CARES more for people than the US system does. I think the CARE part can be influenced by personal investment in the situation by the caregivers, so with that in mind, care varies by giver, not country.

THAT said, I'm a US citizen recently relocated to the UK, where I will be living permanently with my husband, who was born here. The differences between the US and UK health care are vast, yet BOTH have their pros, cons, and similarities. I don't pay for ANY of the daily meds I take (thyroid medication and asthma) but they're generic, whereas in the US I had an insurance co-pay, and chose name brand meds.

I can wait LONG past my scheduled appointment times here in the UK, now, whereas in the US, I have ONLY had to wait about ten minutes, tops, after my scheduled appointment time, and only once for longer, because my GYN had had to leave unexpectedly for the hospital to deliver a baby. I admit I had top of the line insurance and could go to the Dr.s of my choosing, though, and not all US citizens have that luxury.

The similarities can be easily seen in the emergency rooms here, though, where you can be waiting HOURS to be seen. In the US, I was once stuck in the back of the emergency ward and had NO care whatsoever until the severe stomach bug it turns out I had, had completely gotten past the unbearable stage. Here in the UK, I had to WAIT 20 minutes with heart palpitations until I could finally convince my husband to leave me where I was, and go look for someone. The rest of that visit, I was looked after very well, but I was left in "limbo" far too long (over two hours) when all the doctor on duty had had to do (he wasn't busy, as I heard firsthand, from SEVERAL of the nursing staff) was come release me.

There are pros and cons to EACH health care system, definitely the US and UK, as those are the only ones I can speak of from true experience, but having received overall excellent care in the US, and rather seemingly unorganized care here in the UK, I'd prefer being back in the US health care system ANY day.

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The U.S. system sucks because it's been corrupted by money: HMOs, insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry have created a monopolistic enterprise that only works if you're wealthy. But, hey, if you're wealthy, it doesn't get any better. And now it is being further corrupted by fundies (on and off the Supreme Court) who want to dictate what kind of treatment is available. The person who claimed to have only waited 10 minutes for a doctor in America doesn't know what it's like now. Most people here wait 2+ hours on average for a doctor, and emergency care is horrible, especially for people who are refused admittance and shipped someplace else (or dropped off on skid row still in their hospital gowns). Public hospitals are a real mess with regular scandals appearing in the news.

I've seen the U.S. and Canadian systems up close and there's no contest. Moreover, corporations know it too and are moving to countries with universal health care so they don't have to foot even a dime of their employee's benefits.

As for Cuba, part of their problem is that the U.S. has had a trade embargo against them for over 40 years. Compare their health care system to other Caribbean countries (the ones the U.S. supports) and the difference is even more stark. If you've seen the post-invasion plans we have for them, one of the first things we are going to do is eliminate that system and turn the schools over to the Catholic church so we can return them to the Haitian model. But what it does show you is what a tiny, impoverished country can do all by its lonesome.

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Cath,
Cath,
It's hard for me to even try to frame a response to you in reasonable, non-vitriolic language. In the last year I have been to the ER twice and waited just over an hour each time. My doctors appointments are 30 minute affairs, not the two hour situations that you describe. I'm under a PPO, so that's one person's experience.
The rest of my family are under Kaiser. They also describe the doctor visits as in-and-out experiences.
In addition, how do you have access to 'post-invasion' plans for a country that the U.S. has no interest in invading at this point? I'd hardly describe Cuba's situation as something they have been able to accomplish on their own. The Soviet Union had to prop them up for years economically and, even now, the subsidies they are getting from other major governments is what is keeping them afloat.

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Jesus dude you are one of the most credulous people I've seen. Do you think your going to get a pony every Christmas too? Sure the U.S. system has huge problems, but even France is looking to introduce more privatization, the health care system is running a deficit and that is projected to grow over time eventually getting so large as to swallow up all government spending. Yeah it'll take longer than the U.S., but nobody seems to consider that different populations might have different health issues. The U.S. supposedly is the home of lots of obese people. Could that be a contributing factor? Did you know that some British hospitals have mandantory wait times of several weeks to a few months depending on the issue? Canada's system is a financial black hole too. Don't be so lame in the future and justfuckinggoogleit.

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Yeah. That's why people hate Michael Moore. Because he's a "liberal". No, for the person who's not an idiot and pays attention to his "documentaries" it's not the subject matter, it's the disceptive editing, half truths, and flat out lies that he touts as "truth" and "worthy of a documentary".

While he improved with Sicko, he still had to stoop to the lowest common denominator with his "I gave $12,000 to save this guy's wife on the internet who hates me", when that really wasn't the case. Don't believe me? Look into it. What bothers me about Moore's film making, besides the lying, is that he touches on good topics and brushes by points. Why the lying and deception? It's not NEEDED in any of these cases if you're not a hack.

And before you get the wrong idea, I'm a Canadian Liberal, which in much of America makes me a pinko commie. It's not Moore's political views I dissagree with, it's his whole, being full of shit...

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Propoganda is never anything but propoganda. Sicko is not a 'documentary' in any real sense of the term. It is merely a 2 hour propoganda piece for Mr. Moore's ideas.

If there is or could be ANYTHING worse than the effect of morally-corrupt corporate greed on US healthcare - it is surely the morally-corrupt greed of career politicians eager to harvest the graft from the flow of money into socialized healthcare. If for no other reason than because the political corruption escapes scrutiny FAR more than corporate greed ever could.

At least with privatized healthcare, there is the possibility of government oversight. Our problem has been in convincing special interest-funded politicians to look out for the public's interests with that oversight. Once the government IS the institution in need of oversight - all hope is lost.

Any takers on whether 'HMO executives' or 'entrenched politicians' have the real moral/ethical high ground in America? I'd think it's a dead heat (to the back of the line!) So, exactly who is it that really wants to trust their elected officials to be the stewards of our health? Maybe a little more thought is needed.

Better ask for a little truth before buying into this one. (And maybe spend your $9 movie ticket money at an organic grocery?) Mr. Moore's twisted reality won't help.

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Not to burst any bubbles, but where, exactly, do you think drug research happens? And who, exactly, do you think pays for it?

Like MacMic says about Canada's system - there are problems. HMOs, in my opinion, are a huge one. I'm all for reform, but moore's ideas don't provide any way for any research to ever get done. Health care has gotten better because of research. That's true everywhere, and right now, because of privatization (the same privatization that causes the problems moore tries to document), the US is the only country that has added major research developments to the healthcare committee. Socialize the health care, you lose the research.

Frankly, viruses and bacteria keep adapting, evolving, and forming new enemies. Add that to the things we haven't been able to cure/conquer/prevent yet, and there's a whole slew of things i'd like to see us research. Moore's plan simply doesn't account for this piece of the puzzle.

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Hey Uhmmm_Really, since when did you Americans roll over and surrender you government away to your domestic aristocracy and their employed hacks? You speak as if the American government is something separate from the American people - a parasite that must be borne but not engaged. So much for the Gettysburgh Address!! Government by the sheep, for the sheep, of the sheep??

Afraid and demoralized (by debt), people do not exercise democratic control of the government, and those elites or vested interests in a position to abuse power waltz right in.

Why do you feel so powerless to change what government is for you and your people? Whose interests are served by that??

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SICKO is an eye opener, an awakening to the corrupted american health care system. Why "corrupted", because the system is based on money and not on people's need for care. Because it's the bottom line that decides what level of care is given. The US ranks 37th in the world!! It does not matter whether you are a conservative or a liberal, health is a national issue that goes beyond party lines. The current system does not work and must be changed asap.

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I wish Mr.Moore would not impugn my intelligence. He borders on the line of being a creduloid. He only has one concern, making huge money off his non truth films, Sicko is no exception.

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I'm somewhat of a truth seeker. I like watching documentaries that give me good information and enlighten me as to the happenings in the world around me. I have seen such films as: America: Freedom to Fascism, Terror Storm, Farenheit 9/11, Theft by Deception, An Inconvenient Truth, Thank you for Not Smoking, Supersize Me, Monopoly Men, Zeitgeist, and many many miscellaneous clips on Prision Planet, youtube, and google video on topics such as health issues, Ron Paul, the Illiminati, Council on Foreign Relations, the Federal Reserve, IRS, among others.

One night I had planned on going out dancing with a meetup group and I decided that I really wasn't in the mood, so I went to see Michael Moore's movie, "Sicko" which was hyped up to suppsededly expose America's health care industry. I was hoping that Michael Moore would expose the industry for what I have found it to be during my 3 plus years of research. I had hoped to be sitting in my theater seat, nodding my head in agreement throughout the entire flick and with any luck, come home with many fascinating things I could go home and further research.

I had hope.......hope that was destroyed after the first part of Michael Moore's film.

It started out well enough - devistating stories about people who have had their lives ruined (and even ended) by the financially crippling costs of health care and how the insurance companies, by their own admission, coldly deny a large percentage of claims in order to skyrocket their profits.

He also talks about how the drug companies and health insurance companies lobby (bribe) congress...Mr. Bush getting the biggest piece of the pie. Mr. Moore even points out the obvious - that because these are corporations, their number one objective is to make money - depite the lives of the people....then he briefly mentions how corrupt the FDA is.

He also brings attention to a few of the rescue workers from 9/11 and how they now have developed respiratory illnesses as a result of the working conditions and they are now being denied coverage.

After that, I lost hope.

Because after that, his movie campaigns for socialized medicine. Mr. Moore states that our media and our government has brainwashed us into thinking how bad it is and that we shouldn't belive it. Mr. Moore then travels to Canada, Europe, France, and even Cuba, pointing out how their socialized medical care systems are the best thing since sliced bread and his repetitive hammering of the notion that socialized medicine is good and what we have is bad....excuse me while I go throw up.

He boasted how great it was that a system where the people who worked, paid for the people who didn't and how every man, woman, and child - regardless of income, deserved to have health care.

We have something somewhat like that in this country.....it's called AHCCCS.

.....it robs the middle class and gives the money to Hispanics who don't even speak English - er- I mean people who can't afford it.

He even had medical professionals talking about how well they liked the system and how much money they made as a result of being paid by the government.

I agree with Mr. Moore in that this country's health care sucks but I don't see a socialized medical care system as being the solution.

I was so disappointed that I almost threw my popcorn at the screen.

I was hoping that Mr. Moore would use his power for good by exposing that our heath care system is the 2nd or 3rd leading cause of death in the United States, due to drug side-effects, infections in hospitals, improper diagnoses, and drug interactions.

I was hoping that he would mention that there are known cures for many diseases and that they are being supressed, because the cures are as simple and cheap as vitamins, the right foods, getting the toxins out of the body, and/or other natural supplements.

I was hoping that he would mention that cancer is such a big time money maker, that a person (with insurance) brings over a half a million dollars to the industry from the time they are diagnosed to their death. With money like that coming in, it is no wonder that so many people get cancer. Many of the early dection tests used to detect cancer actually causes cancer or the spread of cancerous cells that would not normally spread. (just research mammograms, for one).

I was hoping that Mr. Moore would bring to light that drug companies pour so much money into the medical schools, that they get a say in writing the textbooks and that is why doctors' primary treament of any disease is to cut, burn, and/or medicate, rather than nutrition, detoxification, and wellness.

I was hoping that Mr. Moore would touch on the fact that genetically modified food, transfats, and other dangerous chemical additives, etc., that we eat here in the U.S. have been banned in other countries and that our food is actually so toxic and nutrient deficient that it is making us sick.

He had so much he could have done in a two hour film. I could go on and on about what it should have contained.

I'm just so disappointed that he chose to focus on trying to sell us socialized medicine.

I have a message for you, Mr. Moore. After watching your movie, I would like to ask...who do you work for? Are you a member on the Council on Foriegn Relations? Do you share the goal of a one world government? I suggest you get your head out of your butt and report on what is really going on in our health care system!

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