SiCKO

That's right. It's what you have all been waiting for...my first movie review! Sorry I had to start with such a long controversial one, but a man's got to do what a man's got to do.

To get started I would have to say the people in the theatre reminded me of the Beverly hillbillies. Here we are in one of the nicest parts of Dallas, and at the beginning of the movie when a clip of President Bush was shown several people begain mocking loudly. "man what an idiot!", "Sheesh", "What a dumb #&%#@*". When I go to a documentary I assume I will be with people who are a little more educated than your average movie going crowd. But it seems Michael Moore has broken the stereotype and made documentaries accessible to the common man. Now you can get warnings--from the guy who yells „NO, DON’T GO IN THERE!“ before the hero enters the room filled with villains planning his ambush--telling you who in the movie is stupid and who is smart (this is useful, since many politicians may see this film and might need help trying to figure out that Moore doesn't like Bush). So even though I did not agree with Michael Moore’s opinions there are at least 25 credulous folks in Dallas that did.

My first problem with the film are his choice of interviewees. He took many heart retching stories of all the Joe and Sallies in america. Now these stories are important they are the people that make up america. But his argument would have been more credible had he used some real sources. Why didn’t he speak with economist on what effect National Heath Care would have on the country? Why didn’t he talk to CEO’s of health care companies to see why they run their business they way they do? And if the insurance companies are making as money as Mr. Moore claims, why didn’t he advise the people to invest in their stock? Maybe then they would be able to afford the expensive health care these companies are denying. But I guess going with my comments in the previous paragraph, this movie really aims to be "for the people, by the people"...but is it actually "for the ignorant, by the ignorant".

Listening to all of his articles reminded me of a story I saw on FOX news about the rising gas prices. They couldn’t get a hold of anyone at the state energy department, so they decided to go to the street and ask "the people" what they thought. "There is no reason gas should cost this much", one astute gas buyer said, "We built the Alaskan pipe line, and we have plenty of resources this is just outrageous!" Wow, he is right, while we are at it there is no reason I should have to pay $500 for an iPhone. I mean we have had cell phones for years why should I have to pay so much for that one…I’ll tell you why. The same reason they can charge you $3 for a gallon of gas…because you will pay. My point is the average person doesn’t understand implications of small decisions like raising the price of gas…how can you expect an uneducated public to really understand something as complex as universal heath care? (At least now the uneducated have a place they can go to learn about the advantages of universal health care...other uneducated people). Sure I would like free health care too…but we need to talk to people who have really researched it before assuming it will fix all of our problems.

Second he mentioned Cuba's infant mortality rate being better than ours. Hmm, you are going to trust Cuba's statistics? I think those numbers are likely to be fudged, I would like to see a RELIABLE source on that one. Also you have to define „infant mortality“ it is defined differently in Cuba then it is here. Part of the reason it is so low in the US is we will try to save babies who are born premature. My niece was born 27 weeks into the pregnancy. In most countries (definitely Cuba) she would have been considered a still born. Thanks to a great hospital staff and the evil insurance company that flipped the bill, my niece is now 2 years old and is so healthy and active that it is hard for her parents to keep up with her. So our infant mortality rate may be lower on paper, but it is actually leaps and bounds above most countries…including Cuba.

But why we are talking about Cuba. He mentioned that Cuba sends more doctors to third world countries than any other western country. Where do you get that? I don’t want to take away from any of the great things that I am sure many Cubans do. But Cuba is still a second world country by most standards, but perhaps Mr. Moore is counting it as third so he can count all the work they do in their own country as a charitable endeavor. I mean really how many doctors are in cuba? I can’t imagine that they have that many to spare…but show me a source and then I’ll take that one back.

Finally Moore criticized the fact that Bush had passed a bill to put more money to drugs for the elderly. He claimed by doing so it just put more money into the „greedy“ pharmaceutical companies hands. Now I have to say I agreed with him on this one. It was stupid, we never should have given that money to them (especially since we don’t know have any where to get it from). But what he is proposing is giving even more! If we have universal health care now we aren’t putting a small amount of money into a few of their hands…we are putting a huge amount of money in a all of those same crooked politicians hands. Maybe in his next movie he will still put the amount pharmaceuticals donated floating over the heads of the congressmen and women, but I can guarantee next time the amounts will be much greater. He mentioned Hillary had been bought out by insurance companies to drop the universal health plan. Well now she is being bought out by the pharmacies…“Why is that?“ you ask. Once she has universal heath care it will be up to the government to decide what pills they will use in „their“ hospitals. And mark my words the pills that get chosen are going to be the ones coming from the companies passing Hillary and Obama the biggest checks.

Another point I would concur with him is how he demonized the American Medical Association. I really believe they are the biggest reason we have such high medical cost. Every year thousands of students get turned down from medical school. Many of these candidates are well qualified students, but the AMA strictly regulates the number of students that can be accepted. Why would they turn down so many qualified applicants. Because the AMA wants to be able to control the supply of doctors. That way they can also to an extent control the price…or their wages. The AMA argues they have to regulate it because we don’t want under-qualified doctors. Let’s face it, giving kids shots and listening to their heart beat isn’t rocket Science. Everyday we put our lives in the hands of engineers when we step into our cars, or onto an airplane, or up to the 30th floor in an elevator. We don’t need to regulate who gets an engineering degree. Schools can get more or less depending on funding, if one year they have 12 students who are all a success then the next year it is likely there will be 15 students getting funding. In medicine that isn’t the case. That would be one good thing about universal health care. It would get rid of the AMA, but I fear the beast that would take it’s place would be much worse.

Overall the movie is entertaining, and brings up several good points. One of which I will add is the awful way that france and cuba are portrayed in the media. But before you join the 25 naïve film goers in Dallas you may want to take some time to think about it.