Sicko

Having read all the comments and reviews, this movie was pretty much what I expected. Moore does a really good job in making his point.

What bothered me a little was his black & white view of the healthcare industry - either it is public OR private. In reality, many western countries have a "hybrid" system. For example here in Finland we have a pretty reasonable public healthcare system (which by the way is not totally free for the patient, albeit very cheap), but in addition, we also have private clinics, if you want even faster service and are willing to pay extra. You can also get an insurance from private companies, which provides extra financial support and/or service in the private clinics in case of illness. Also some workplaces and institutes have free doctors.

A portion of the cost of medicines is substituted by the government in either case, and there is an annual limit after which they are totally substituted.

I think it would be pretty straightforward to establish this kind of system in the US. There is no need to socialize healthcare TOTALLY. There is no need for the insurance company to "go" (as Moore put it), they just need to step aside a little and stop being the main authority. Also, if insurance companies have to compete with FREE (health care), there is only one thing they can do: offer really good service!

I can only hope this movie wakes some people up, especially those flag waving people who keep on repeating slogans like "greatest country in the world" etc. This could be a serious wake up call for a proud nation. I have always wondered how people can still call it the greatest country if it does not have universal health care, but maybe the reason is, they don't know any better. They do not realize that in other western countries this has been done for ages and it works.

People of USA should embrace Moore as the patriot he is. He wants the American PEOPLE all the best, but he gets sacrificed by the same people because he dares to speak about the government. But true patriots rise against governments too, if they are bad for the people. United states is not the flag, not the white house, not the senate, not the soaring eagle. It is the people living there, and this is what they have to remember. You can demand for universal health care, and you can vote for it.

I just got done watching this movie and no other movie I have seen in my life has had the impact on me that this movie has had.

My wife has M.S. and requires a LOT of medical treatment. Just ONE of her many prescriptions is a thousand (US) dollars a month. This very expensive experimental drug is nothing more than an old flu shot they are experimenting with. ( seriously )

I am a middle class skilled worker with great insurance.. and I may soon be homeless due in part to this. The other part is due to the corrupt banking system that I hope one day gets equally exposed.

I am now officially embarrassed to be a US citizen. If it wasn't for me already being middle aged and having 15 years seniority in a job I cannot replace... I would forever leave this so called "Free Country"

Peace Rich

rich3077@gmail.com

I've seen a lot of movies that either make fun or try to exemplify American stupidity, but none convinced me of it unless I've seen Sicko. How can you people put up with this?! The medical system portrayed in this film is worst than here in Romania!

Basically, it tells about the medical system being bought and used by insurance companies to trick people into paying huge sums of money for any medical care, regardless of them having a medical insurance or not. Then there are examples of the Canadian, French, British and Cuban health care systems, which are, as I think they should be, free and of high quality.

And the logic is very simple, even if one chooses to disregard the highly emotional examples presented by Moore: people who win money from not taking care of you will not take care of you.

Take care!

Brilliant documentary, with a softer, less angry Moore taking a good hard look at the current state of the inner-workings of the American private health care system, and comparing them to the universal systems in Canada, England, and France. The nay-sayers will argue that he's skewing his content, or simply choosing the worst HMO stories, but that's exactly what he has to do to drive his point home! The content here is far less controversial than in his previous films. It's widely known that, despite being one of the richest countries in the world, the states is far from best when it comes to taking care of their own.

The film gives the impression that Canadians wait an average of 45minutes to get seen at a hospital. Being a Canadian, I'll tell you right away that is not the case. There is an issue here in Canada with long wait times (both at the hospital and for major surgery), however, the system still works well, and everyone is taken care of, regardless of financial or social status.

Seeing sicko really made me realize just how much I take our universal health care system for granted. Some of the HMO horror stories Moore gives are shocking (to put it lightly).

While this film doesn't pack quite the punch, compared to Fahrenheit and Columbine, it's still going to turn a lot of heads. Everyone should see this movie.