Sicko (Special Edition)

My boyfriend and I ran across this on Tv. Though we caught it in the middle, it was enough to catch my interest and buy the film. Not disappointed and was ready to show others the film that I know. So many people are ignorant about what is going on though luckily a lot of my friends are ex-military brats, whose parents have family outside the US. There is so much that those who have lived their entire life in the US do not know, and may never know because they havent even left their own city or state. There are a lot of things wrong with our country and there are those who refuse to hear or see any of it, because there are those who get offended if you talk down about 'Murica! I've lived in the US most of my life but my father serving in the military gave me the chance to see the other sides.I have far to many personal stories of messed up stuff when it comes to health care of the military, where it lacks a whole lot. These are people who give up their lives to keep the US safe and secure yet even they are cut down on care and benefits. Whether you dont know or refuse to see, there have been plenty of stuff about it on the news. My father was military and my mother dies last year from cancer that could of been avoided and she was supposedly covered through my fathers military benefits, yet they ignored a lot and refused a lot. Wish I could of recorded it even to the last minute of her dying breath. I refused for her to go into hospice care cause i've seen and heard enough of what goes on there as well. I quit my job to take care of her and now struggle with trying to find work, not because opening are lacking but because I have disabled twins and there is no work willing to work with the schedule of days i need for their therapy.A company opened up a new facility here for therapy for disabled children. They originally came from South America and have now opened up facilities in other locations as well, but only one has recently opened up in the US. My twins were getting an hour of therapy from their previous therapy, one day a week. That was all that was available because Dr's for children therapy are lacking or spots are hard to come by. Thankfully I got them in on the list for this new location. Sadly no insurance in the US wants to ok them. So everyone has to make payments. They do far more therapy then any other facility in my state, and only charge a few bucks here and there, its pennies to how much all the therapies actually cost. So thankful for it but I feel so bad that there are not more facilities like this. There are tons of parents coming out month after month from states farther away just to get whatever help they cane for their child. The limit is 600 patients and they have reached it and the waiting list is already back up to 3 years in waiting. I was told years before by another Dr that if my boys don't improve by the age of 18 they may have to get surgery in their hip area, and they will have to heal for several months. When I got a chance to sit with all the therapists and Dr's at this new facility and I told them of what I was told by a previous Dr, they looked shocked and disturbed. They told me that no, they wont have to go through that with the therapy they are getting through this facility. Tears came down my eyes and I have made sure to make my simple payments and donate money to their charity. Not only do they get therapy but I get support and help with a nutritionist and so much more. If i want to talk to a Dr I dont have to wait, I can talk to them in the hallway when I see them, along with the therapists. If my kids get sick, I can take them to that facility and they will see them right away. There is no wait, not even for the therapy appointments. As soon as your appointment is to begin, they are taking you in.The biggest issue I have is their insurance. My twins are in need of walkers. They are mirror identical twins with enough medical paperwork to prove they need help walking. Its tiring getting paperwork from their insurance wondering why they end up in the hospital so often due to injuries from falling. Its all there, proof as to why they fall and yet one twin recently got a walker and the other twin has been denied 3 times. They have the exact same disability yet the insurance feels some how the Dr's who have requested this and therapist who have sent them info over and over, must be making it up, or for whatever reason. Both of their paper work was sent with the exact same info because they are Identical to a T. Makes no sense that one is approved yet the other is not, and the one unapproved needs it more. Just got to love the insurance here.I also had a friend whose parent were divorced. Her mom remarried and moved to the states, her father stayed in England. Years later she gets pregnant, and her father tells her to leave the US and go live with him. Because they provide better care. Sure enough she did and has not come back, not even to see her mother. She has remarried and had 3 more kids, and is living a happier life than most of my friends here.When I needed my wisdom teeth taken out at the age of 18, the insurance informed my mother she would have to pay a ridiculous amount. So instead of paying that much she bought plane ticket to go visit family in South America. I have 3 cousins who are dentists there and they had a friends who specialized in wisdom teeth. He did everything along with anesthetic, all four teeth for 200. My bottom two were impacted and with all that my mom had informed me that it would of ran over 2,000 in the US. So she decided why not a family vacation and we get to see our family along with site seeing for that much. Over there, the dentist and doctors all work in the hospital. It is not separated like here. An ex of mine had an infection in his gums due to a tooth. He went to a facility here that said they could do nothing if he didn't rid the infection and they could not prescribe that only a Dr could, so we went to the ER because it got so extremely painful for him, and they almost turned us away saying they do nothing with the dental work. When we finally had to repeat he needed antibiotics for the infection they finally gave the ok and gave it. Luckily his insurance covered the visit. But over there if there is an issue that needs both, both would come to you there at the hospitals, unlike here.Reading the bad reviews on this only made me laugh. I have friends who never knew what it was like else where outside of the US, for one they had never even left our city let alone our state we live in. They never had a reason to even research as to how other people live else where and how their healthcare is compared to ours. Too many live inside a box looking out a peep hole, comfortable not wanting to move and if someone dare to challenge they will quickly stomp their feet, shake their fist in the air and yell to get off their lawn...Ignorance is bliss. Don't get me wrong, we have some things that are great here but far more things that are ridiculous and "for the people" is an understatement. The ridiculously rich keep on getting richer and they could care less about the little people who hold them up from under their feet. They know if one Joe dies, some other smuck will take his place. Hopefully one day more will wake up, but i highly doubt that.I honestly would be the first to sign up if there was a program that offered free healthcare if you were willing to pay more taxes. An optional program only for those willing to do it. I know a lot of people who would sign up. Not because they are wackos/communist or whatever titles the ignorant like to give others due to fear. Id be willing to live on ramen noodles or PB&js if that meant I didn't have to pay a dime for medicine, check ups or ER visits. But again thats me

This isn't a five-star film. It's spotty, sloppy, and self-indulgent, more a diatribe than a documentary. My five-star rating is a vote of solidarity with Michael Moore's position: that American health care as a system is inadequate and unworthy of a modern nation. Moore is a 'muckraker' in the honorable tradition of American journalism, and there's plenty of 'muck' to be raked in America, the only wealthy Western democracy that doesn't support a system of universal health care. Moore's targets are the profit-driven insurance companies - HMOs chiefly - the greedy drug companies, and the special-interest 'bagmen' in Congress, from both parties, who collaborate in keeping American health care expensive and inequitable. America and the American people spend more money, both in aggregate and per capita, on health care than any other nation, yet America lags in most statistics of health care quality, and that's a sickening state of affairs.However, what's "sickening" about Sicko is that it won't persuade those people who have virulently resisted health care reform in the USA. Those who already recognize the failures of for-profit, insurance-dominated health care will applaud Moore's witty cinematography, but those who deny that the system needs reform will latch onto Moore's personal idiosyncrasies and partialities as evidence that health care reform is a big-government intrusion and a socialist plot against Mom and Apple Pie.Some Americans enjoy very good health care. I do, when I happen to be in the USA. I have Kaiser Permanente coverage, which has been fully adequate to cover two very expensive procedures for me, but Kaiser Permanente is one of the villains in this film. Yes, Kaiser and other HMOs are guilty of the misdeeds Moore exposes, but his depiction of them is too one-sided, too selective. Anyone who has had good experiences with Kaiser, as I have, will be skeptical of Moore's integrity. That's 'sickening' because Moore is basically correct. Insurance-managed health care is unfair, capricious, supremely inflationary, and above all UNAVAILABLE for millions of people. The Constitution of the USA pledges the federal government to "promote the general welfare" of the People, a commitment to a sense of community that is not fulfilled by a system of health care that excludes the poorest and sickest.Moore is also too one-sided in his portrayal of the universal health care systems of other countries, particularly of Canada, France, and Cuba. It is true that those countries provide free or nearly free health care to everybody, despite any 'pre-existing conditions' and despite the disqualification of poverty. It's true that citizens of those countries enjoy a sense of security that many Americans lack. It's true that statistics demonstrate better results - lower infant mortality, greater longevity, better overall health - in those countries than in the opulent USA. But it's also true that the national health care systems of Canada and Europe are far from perfect. There are long waits for procedures, MRIs for instance, in Canada. There are complaints, angry complaints about health care in Germany and England -- as there are of course in Massachusetts and Hawaii -- but Michael Moore doesn't report those complaints. His one-sidedness weakens his case.I've experienced health care needs abroad, by the way, for myself in Spain and Germany, for my family in France and Canada. I've gotten effective, prompt, courteous treatment of urgent medical problems like strep throat in Spain, with no paperwork and no hassle. My family has gotten house calls from doctors in France, as Moore depicts. The right wing insurance-industry propaganda against 'socialized' health care in Europe is just as deceptive and unscrupulous as Moore declares. National Health Care is effective and economical in ways that profit-driven health care can't duplicate. I only wish Michael Moore could have made a more convincing case for it.Ex-Vice President Dick Cheney famously accused Michael Moore, at the Republican Convention in 2004, of being disingenuous. That might seem like 'the pot calling the kettle black' since Cheney has been proven to be a consummate opportunist of disinformation. But it's also inaccurate. Moore is anything but disingenuous; his positions and his intentions are always blatantly clear. In this film, when he briefly poses as the Devil's Advocate for American health care, he's utterly unconvincing. He can direct, but he can't act. His ingenuousness is painful at times; for instance, he delivers one of his strongest endorsements of socialized medicine -- yes, he IS a socialist! -- with a bust of Karl Marx visible behind him. What's disingenuous about that? Unfortunately, many 'conservative' Americans will react to such deliberate honesty as mere provocation. Moore would do better not to taunt his adversaries, assuming that his goal is to persuade them.But then, is the goal of Sicko really to persuade or to entertain? In the end, it fails of one and succeeds at the other.

Ottimo

Such a sad reveal of the broken health care system...and how some countries actually do care for its citizen. I thought Canada had it good...that is until I watch this documentary!

Me gustó el documental y cómo consigue que el espectador esté sorprendido e interesado hasta el final. Un documental para pensar.

C'est à mon sens le meilleur documentaire de Michael Moore. A noté qu'à l'heure à laquelle j'écris ces quelques lignes, je n'ai pas encore vu "Capitalism, a love story".On peut toujours constesté la méthode et le parti pris de Michael Moore. Par contre, les faits sont là. Les américains ont un système de santé qui n'est pas à la hauteur du nôtre, ni de celui de nos voisins européens. Ceci, nous le savions. Il ne s'agit pas de comparer les systèmes de santé d'un point de vue technique bien sûr mais plutôt d'un point de vue social. Les enquêtes de Michael Moore en Angleterre, au Canada, en France, à Cuba, en Norvège et bien sûr aux Etats-Unis montrent que seuls les américains qui ont de l'argent ont accès aux meilleurs soins alors que dans les autres pays cités c'est le plus grand nombre qui a accès aux soins. Par contre, ceux qui n'en ont pas doivent choisir entre risquer de détériorer leur santé ou bien risquer d'être ruinés.Les soucis financiers qui s'ajoutent aux soucis de santé n'aident pas à résoudre ces derniers. Il semble évident que pour combattre au mieux la maladie, il est préférable d'être dans les meilleures dispositions.

Tutti dovrebbero vederlo per capire cosa sono i mitici usa, un paese dove vive bene solo chi è straordinariamente ricco. Un paese nel quale tutti possono ambire alla ricchezza ma alla fine pochi diventano ricchi. Un paese nel quale dopo una vita di lavoro ti ritrovi con un tumore e devi dilapidare tutto il tuo patrimonio per le cure solo perché manca quel segno di spunta sul contratto. Un docufilm che ti fa ringraziare il cielo di essere nato in italia.