Sicko

Along with a lot of other folks around the country I saw Sicko last Saturday. It seems the reviews have been quite positive thus far. That positivity is well deserved. Though the movie very clearly bore the quirky signature of its director, the gotcha moments that typified earlier pieces were less common. He had only one gratuitously unrelated piece. It had nothing to due with healthcare whatsoever and was a direct shot at some guy who runs a website devoted to attacking Moore. Other than that, he stayed on message and presented a scathing critique of the US medical system and an impassioned plea for social democracy and universal healthcare.

The film, of course, was primarily propagandistic. It didn't cite statistics comparing wait times to see specialists in various countries but rather went abroad and chatted with folks in hand picked waiting rooms. Though the social scientist in me is annoyed with his general methodology, it certainly is emotionally moving and a tough argument to rebut with simple stats. That said, I do wish he had taken more time to rebuff some obvious counter attacks. He takes folks to Cuba for treatment but apparently went to a hospital catering largely to tourists and not typical of most hospitals in Cuba. It would have been preferable to leave Cuba out and compare our system solely with those in Canada, France, and the UK. Adding Cuba was a needless distraction and took away from the core point that as a wealthy industrialized superpower we can and should be doing a better job.

All told Moore did what other haven't been able to: he made a compelling case for universal healthcare that should appeal across class, ethnicity, and region. That was more than worth the price of admission.