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Moore's film has generated much more controversy than his previous anti-Bush-anti-war documentary. It starts humorously with another crack at Bush, but goes on to expose the extravagant amounts the medical industry gives to elected officials. It then continues with lots of stories of ordinary Americans whose health insurance did not cover the diseases and accidents which their medical plans should have paid for, and whose prescription drugs are totally unaffordable.
Michael Moore isn't the first to say that the US health care system is sick - it's a well-known problem that no one seems to want to do much about - blocked perhaps by the overwhelming number of HMO and Pharmaceutical lobbyists.
Of course Michael Moore attracts attacks from biased critics. He seems to have a genius for confrontational stunts. The Cuba boat ride tops them all. It begins when he hears Congressional testimony indicating that detainees at Guantanamo were getting free medical care and nutrition counseling. So he rounded up several volunteer rescue workers who had suffered respiratory and other diseases during the 9/11 World Trade Center attack, whose medical plans did not cover treatment for all their ailments. They go on a small boat from Florida to Gitmo, with the hope that these 9/11 heroes might get the same high-end care that the government said it was giving 9/11 terror suspects. When they wouldn't let him visit, he took his ailing rescue workers to Havana, where they got excellent and sympathetic care from a local clinic. And their US prescriptions were then filled at a fraction of US prices.
Go see SICKO. It will show you how hospitals dump homeless patients on the street because they can't pay, how doctors get bonuses for avoiding expensive procedures, how health insurance companies block legitimate payments while their executives make big bucks for achieving bigger profits. It'll demonstrate why the US has slipped to No. 37 in health care around the world, slightly ahead of Slovenia.
