"Sicko" is Moore's best, most focused movie to date -- much more persuasive than the enraged and self-righteous "Fahrenheit 9/11 " -- and not just because the director turns the dial down on his own faux-folksy persona. Moore has a thesis he can get his arms around this time. Resolved: The US health-care system is a disaster, built to punish the sick and enrich corporations. Other countries do it better -- a lot better. Why is that, and how do we change? It's only on the last point that Moore falters.
Go ahead, feel smug; you live in Massachusetts, where affordable universal insurance becomes law on Sunday. "Sicko" unleashes its scorn not just on insurance companies, but on HMOs, Big Pharma, and the politicians they own. The movie builds its case from the ground up, with anecdotes of average Americans so cruelly abused by the system the only response is the laughter of disbelief.
One man lost two fingers to a tablesaw, then was told by doctors he could afford to have only one re attached, so would he prefer the middle or ring finger? A woman was denied the cost of post-car-crash EMS care because it hadn't been pre-approved. Another woman was told she must give back the money that paid for her operation because she hadn't disclosed a pre-existing condition: a yeast infection years earlier.
Those are the more grimly entertaining stories. Others just make you want to cry, and for once you don't feel Moore is exploiting other people's tragedies (any more than they want him to, at least). Some people were willing to use the director right back; there's a tart little segment about a father desperate to get a second cochlear implant for his baby girl (the insurance company would only pay for one), who drops Moore's name in a phone message to the claims department. Bingo -- the implant is approved.
