Diagnosis: Greed

Sicko exposes America’s embarrassing system

NICK MACMAHON

“How much?” — one of many offensive catchphrases popularized by last year’s box office smash, Borat. This summer, the question has taken on a new meaning: “HOW much?!” — the shocking response of Canadians watching Michael Moore’s new film, as they try to fathom a $60,000 finger operation.

What better way to open up a film attacking the American health-care system than to outdo Pan’s Labyrinth’s infamous gross-out stitching scene with real, amateur footage of a young man playing doctor, stitching up a wide gash in his own leg. This becomes the emotionally charged theme of the first half of the film, as Moore recounts tragic stories of Americans who have suffered at the hands of the greedy health insurance companies. Moore injects the audience with a heavy dose of empathy, zeroing in on the country’s less privileged who can’t afford that life saving operation or medication, complemented by stories of those who have insurance, but have been screwed over because they didn’t fill their forms correctly. One ex-health insurance worker exposes the system: when filling out a health insurance application, the applicant must list her current illnesses. If she has an illness that she was not aware of prior to filling out her form and does not list it, then she will be denied care for that illness, even if obvious symptoms only present themselves later, unless of course, she can cough up some more money. This particular worker reveals the blood on his hands — search expeditions for mistakes made in the initial application in order to boost the company’s profits.

During the second half of the film, Moore focuses his attention on other health-care systems: the remainder of the western world views medical attention as a basic right. In France, benefits include a paid leave of absence following cancer treatment, as one man reflects. Moore has dinner with a handful of Americans living in Paris, who praise the French health-care system. Moore asks jokingly if they’ll do your laundry for you when hospitalized, only to be startled by the laughing Americans affirmative response.

His glorification of the Canadian health-care system is slightly exaggerated. For instance, in a London, Ont. clinic, Moore interviews patients staffin the waiting room who provide him with friendly, care-free smiles assuring him that they normally don’t wait very long. It’s no surprise that Moore chose London as Canada’s representative. According to a recent study done over a one-year period, small-town Ontarians waited one to four hours, while patients in larger cities waited up to nine hours. With careful editing, small town Ontarians become the answer to any criticisms regarding Canada’s long waiting times. Unfortunately, Moore has a proclivity to generalize Canadian life. In his 2002 film Bowling for Columbine, he enters random Ontarians’ houses, concluding that most Canadians leave their front doors unlocked because they trust one another.

For a film that attempts to remove the communist stigma that is attached to free universal health care, maybe Moore could have chosen a better way to close his film than interviewing Dr. Aleida Guevara, daughter of Rage Against the Machine’s posterboy Che “Guerilla Warfare” Guevara. Regardless, fans and critics of Moore, will be pleased with the film’s honest look at an urgent moral crisis.