Customer Rating: 
Summary: Eye Opener
Comment: Wow, this matches so much with th real life experiences I have had in America. I'm a naturalized American, come from India, and I know Medical Systems in both the countries pretty well. In India, the poorer people can afford the hospitals and the medicines, why? because they are paid for by the government. I agree, the hospitals are overcrowded and there are flies around, but they are never denied the health-care. It takes about 50 cents for the routine doctor checkup visit and about 10 cents for the general prescription medications (subsidized by Govt.) And we are talking about the 'Developing Country like India'. I had a couple of surgeries about ten years ago in India and never had to spend fortune and never denied care. The preventive care was also excellent without putting me on 10 different medicines.
I love USA, I am a proud american now, there're definitely 99% good things in USA but 1% is that the screwed up health care. I will go back to India when I am retired as I don't trust the MediCare & Medicaid, (My wife works in the Medical/Health Field). The healthcare system in India so much better than in here.
I had a surgery on my knee few years ago and Insurance was denied even after the pre-approval/pre-authorization stuff. After countless hours they finally caughed up some payments.
Routinely the Insurance Co. keep denying the Lab-Tests, specialist visits etc etc for the absolutely nonsence and stupid reason.
My wife was denied care after 4 nights in the hospital just because her Insurance won't cover it and we were told to go home with the baby before 11 AM. They won't do that in India. My mother in law is also a full time health care worker in India and she was stunned by this.
Well, atleast I have an option of going back after my retirement and don't have to be bankrupt like that old couple Michael showed in the movie.
"What about you my friends?"
Customer Rating:
Summary: 6 stars!
Comment: I was almost too lazy to watch this film, how pathetic I am.
M. Moore hit another HUGE homerun, this film hits you in the gut
from start to finish, weaves a devastating story, and is the first
and last thing you need to know about U.S. health care: IT SUCKS !!
We're a bunch of suckers in the USA. I shed a tear when the U.S.
rescue workers were embraced by their Cuban firefighting brothers.
Thank god someone can recognize a hero, apparently the U.S. government
cannot! Next time you see a bright, shining skyscraper with a medical insurance, hmo, or drug company logo on the top, just remember all the dead and chronically ill people that were swindled, left to die or suffer untreated for the rest of their lives just so some top executives and CEOs can be filthy rich and the richest 1% can see their multi-million and billion dollar stock holdings appreciate. We are all suckers in the U.S. As the brillant british gentleman said, "If you can pay to kill people, certainly you can pay to save people". That's all you need to remember.
Customer Rating:
Summary: You will get this film when it happens to you!!!!
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Shocking And Enlightening.
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Ten Stars!!!!
Comment: This is a wonderful, riveting, fast-paced film driven relentlessly forward by Moore's compelling monotone. The film is presented as a series of interviews which will leave you at the edge of your seat and biting your nails. It's one of those unique films that is both a documenary and a cliff hanger. We never quite know whether Michael is going to have a gallbladder attack and have to rush to Cuba for GREAT medical treatmentin a twenty person ward.
I cried all the way through the film. It is disgustingly 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 fudges a little which is OK because he's telling the truth. He's kind of like a modern day Winston Churchill who said, "The truth is so precious it must be protected by a bodyguard of lies." Moore feels the same way. Like many of us liberals, he has to lie a lot to protect a kernel of truth! 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. Right on, Michael. The reason that no one disagrees that their systems suck, is that everyone thinks their systems are terrific. There is no dissent, for example, in the People's Democracy of Cuba,
Well, the U.S. medical system does, in many cases, suck but Michael Moore, although a champion for the poor [I like that, Moore and poor rhyme, no doubt a casde of cosmic symbolism], ain't absolutely, 100% perfect. 99% is more like it [hey, more rhymes with Moore, too. Unbelievable]. I suspect that a really honest examination of the systems in these various other countries will reveal something other than the medical nirvana that Mike 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 Mike, although an absolutely honest and terrific fellow, 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 like magic, which will appeal to Michael.
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? Moore thinks socialism would be perfect but I'm not quite so certain. 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
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