(M) Sicko (Michael Moore, 2007) Grade: BThis film pretty much convinced me that I am not a big fan of Michael Moore documentaries. I prefer to-the-point, drier material rather than Moore’s antics and cutesy pranks. But the topic itself interests me quite a bit, as I have probably had more experience with doctors, pharmacies, hospitals, etc. than most people my age. And it does cost a lot of money. I have always had insurance, but if there’s ever a time when I really need a medication but lack a prescription, I have to pay out of pocket, which is always quite a bit. The best point the film made is that the U.S. already has lots of government-funded programs (i.e. libraries, police/fire stations, schools), so why not health care? Oh yeah, pharmaceutical companies and health insurance agencies with their millions of dollars and tons of lobbyists. Sigh. Side note: I went to the ArcLight to see this at their 21+ show, and there were several people who got really drunk and started yelling things at the screen. Ha ha. And my friend bought for this show to avoid such incidents.
6 comments:
one caveat to universal healthcare is that everyone would have to wait a long time for certain services(surgeries, procedures, etc.) as a doctor, i know i should probably have some sort of stance on this, but there's a huge grey area that it's very difficult to take a side. both sides have drawbacks. everything has a tradeoff. i'm interested to see what michael moore has to say about all this. health care is not perfect, but for now we have to do our best with what we have to work with and try to fill the gaps in the meantime.
michael moore doesn't make documentaries, he makes opinion pieces. :)
And his "opinion pieces" are usually bang-on. If his critics actually checked the facts (from a legit source, not Fox "News") rather than have the immediate right-wing knee-jerk reaction, they'd find that 99% of the time he's correct.
I'm sure that's probably true about the long wait as I don't know the details of healthcare as well as Hedwig, Bleed or other doctors. But it does seem like people have to wait with this system as well. A friend had to have surgery but her insurance wouldn't clear it, so she had to wait another month until it went through. She was in agony I could only imagine.
hey anon....bang on!
http://www.davekopel.org/terror/59Deceits.pdf
http://www.hardylaw.net/Truth_About_Bowling.html
http://www.spinsanity.org/columns/20021119.html
http://www.riograndefoundation.org/weblog/2007/06/post_4.html
These don't seem to be from fox new sites. When you skew a viewer to a certain direction, it’s because the filmmaker has an agenda, based on his own opinion. His films are very well made, but you can't take them as 100% truth. Are there facts, yes. Are there exaggerations, you bet. Don't fool yourself into thinking he is saving us all from the big bad evil government with his movies.
Look the reality of it is Michael Moore makes movies on issues he thinks people should know about. I'm sure most of his facts are 99.9% correct from new sources that are not Fox related and I'm sure he does a good job presenting his issues.
End of the day though, it is just another form of spin no different from the garbage the Government pushes down our throats.
Look the reality is healthcare is run by big, huge businesses which in turn run the Government (lobbyists) that is what pushes the entertainment industry, healthcare, environment ... pretty much EVERY SOCIAL issue out there. As long as people are sort of getting what they want ... they will remind apathetic and that is just want the Government wants.
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