July 05, 2007
Have You Seen SICKO?

I saw it yesterday. Seeing it on the Fourth of July didn't exactly make me want to wave the flag. I cried during it and I cried afterwards. Our health care system is a mess and I left the movie with the feeling that it will fail me at some point in the near or distant future.

I didn't know whether to be appalled at all of the people who are falling through the cracks now, or be worried sick that it could happen very, very easily to me.

When I got home last night, I was depressed to think that the only people who don't have to worry about this are the people in political power like Bush and various Congress folks who do the bidding of the health care industry.

I'm not sure what's more shocking in the movie, the stories of people we have thrown in the garbage over their poor health, or the news of all of the nations that take care of their citizens health for free (and focus on preventive care! Imagine that!) - Cuba, France, England and Canada are featured.

I recommend everyone go see this and then ask yourself why, in our democracy, we are so callous to our fellow Americans.

Posted by Martha Griffin on July 05, 2007 to TV and movies
Comments

Moving to one of those countries you mentioned is looking more and more like a reality for me.

I haven't seen Sicko yet but I plan to next week. Thanks for the report.

Posted by: TXsharon on July 5, 2007 11:25 AM

I haven't seen it yet, but I thought this Kurt Loder review was good.

Posted by: ttrentham on July 5, 2007 1:53 PM

OK, I've read it. Loder has Moore envy.

Posted by: Charles Hixon on July 5, 2007 3:22 PM

I haven't seen the movie yet, although I'll almost certainly rent it when it becomes available. I would say, however, being from the UK, I can personally attest to the absolute shambles that the NHS is in and has been for more than a decade now.

Again, I haven't seen the film, so I don't necessarily dispute anything it says about the US system, but if it is painting the UK system as something better or a model to be copied I would say that the makers of the film haven't done their research at all.

Will

Posted by: Will B. on July 5, 2007 8:37 PM

Sicko was awesome. I am amazed with Moore's framing of the "Socialized Medicine" scare tactic in the context of all of the other segments we have socialized: Education, Libraries, etc. One of our local folks just realized last night that we also have socialized fireworks for the 4th of July.

Posted by: WhosPlayin on July 5, 2007 9:03 PM