Sicko (2007)

Director:

Michael Moore

Writer (WGA):

Michael Moore (written by)

Release Date:

22 June 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Drama | History

Tagline:

This might hurt a little.

Plot:

A documentary comparing the highly profitable American health care industry to other nations, and HMO horror stories.

Plot Keywords:

Hmo | Canada | France | Cuba | Michael Moore

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 7 wins & 7 nominations

Cast

Michael Moore	...	Himself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Tucker Albrizzi	...	Himself
Tony Benn	...	Himself
George W. Bush	...	Himself (archive footage)
Reggie Cervantes	...	Herself
Bill Clinton	...	Himself (archive footage)
Hillary Rodham Clinton	...	Herself (archive footage)
Billy Crystal	...	Himself (archive footage)
John Graham	...	Himself
Aleida Guevara	...	Herself
William Maher	...	Himself
Richard Nixon	...	Himself (archive footage)
Patrick Pedraja
Linda Peeno	...	Herself

Also Known As:

SiCKO (USA) (alternative spelling)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for brief strong language.

Runtime:

123 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French | Spanish | Russian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Canada:PG (Alberta/British Columbia/Ontario) | Norway:A | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Singapore:PG | France:Unrated | UK:12A | Ireland:PG | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Netherlands:12 | Sweden:Btl | Germany:6 | Finland:S | USA:PG-13 (certificate #43583) | Brazil:Livre | South Korea:12 | Hong Kong:IIA

Filming Locations:

Denver, Colorado, USA

Company:

Dog Eat Dog Films

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: The Italian version consistently mistranslates "bone marrow" as "spinal cord" (in Italian the two terms are more similar).

Quotes:

Tony Benn: Keeping people hopeless and pessimistic - see I think there are two ways in which people are controlled - first of all frighten people and secondly demoralize them.
Tony Benn: An educated, healthy and confident nation is harder to govern.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "De zomer draait door: (#2.9)" (2009)

Soundtrack:

Je t'aime moi non plus

Pretty much what I expected

Having read all the comments and reviews, this movie was pretty much what I expected. Moore does a really good job in making his point.

What bothered me a little was his black & white view of the healthcare industry - either it is public OR private. In reality, many western countries have a "hybrid" system. For example here in Finland we have a pretty reasonable public healthcare system (which by the way is not totally free for the patient, albeit very cheap), but in addition, we also have private clinics, if you want even faster service and are willing to pay extra. You can also get an insurance from private companies, which provides extra financial support and/or service in the private clinics in case of illness. Also some workplaces and institutes have free doctors.

A portion of the cost of medicines is substituted by the government in either case, and there is an annual limit after which they are totally substituted.

I think it would be pretty straightforward to establish this kind of system in the US. There is no need to socialize healthcare TOTALLY. There is no need for the insurance company to "go" (as Moore put it), they just need to step aside a little and stop being the main authority. Also, if insurance companies have to compete with FREE (health care), there is only one thing they can do: offer really good service!