Sicko 
Gabriela V. Hernandez
Prof. Thomas
PHI2604
12 November 2014
Film review of “Sicko” Michael Moore’s last two films were based on opinions that many people vehemently opposed: that America has too many guns, and that George W. Bush is a bad president. It didn’t matter how persuasive the films might have been, because half the population disagreed with them before the opening credits even rolled.
But with “Sicko,” Moore turns his attention to the American healthcare system, and his central theme is that it needs to be reformed. I think that’s common ground, don’t you? We can argue about what remedies the system needs, and the best way to go about it, and plenty of people will think Moore is off-base for suggesting socialized medicine. But Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, don’t we all agree that the current system is wrong? Let’s use that as the starting point and let the discussion evolve from there.
There are 50 million Americans who have no health coverage at all and “Sicko” is not about them. “Sicko,” Moore says, is about the other 250 million Americans, the ones who have health insurance yet STILL get a raw deal. This movie is about how American health insurance companies exploit every means possible to avoid actually paying for their customer’s medical needs, and how people sometimes die because of it. The “lucky” ones live, and are stuck with astronomical medical bills, you know, the bills that were supposed to be taken care of by the insurance company.
This topic is fraught with anger and emotion, and someone needs to stick it to the ruthless corporations that deny funding for life-saving operations due to loopholes and technicalities, or that tell a man they can either sew one of his severed fingers back on for $60,000, or the other finger for $12,000. When an insurance company refuses to pay for a woman’s
Prof. Thomas
PHI2604
12 November 2014
Film review of “Sicko” Michael Moore’s last two films were based on opinions that many people vehemently opposed: that America has too many guns, and that George W. Bush is a bad president. It didn’t matter how persuasive the films might have been, because half the population disagreed with them before the opening credits even rolled.
But with “Sicko,” Moore turns his attention to the American healthcare system, and his central theme is that it needs to be reformed. I think that’s common ground, don’t you? We can argue about what remedies the system needs, and the best way to go about it, and plenty of people will think Moore is off-base for suggesting socialized medicine. But Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, don’t we all agree that the current system is wrong? Let’s use that as the starting point and let the discussion evolve from there.
There are 50 million Americans who have no health coverage at all and “Sicko” is not about them. “Sicko,” Moore says, is about the other 250 million Americans, the ones who have health insurance yet STILL get a raw deal. This movie is about how American health insurance companies exploit every means possible to avoid actually paying for their customer’s medical needs, and how people sometimes die because of it. The “lucky” ones live, and are stuck with astronomical medical bills, you know, the bills that were supposed to be taken care of by the insurance company.
This topic is fraught with anger and emotion, and someone needs to stick it to the ruthless corporations that deny funding for life-saving operations due to loopholes and technicalities, or that tell a man they can either sew one of his severed fingers back on for $60,000, or the other finger for $12,000. When an insurance company refuses to pay for a woman’s