Sicko

It pleases me that Michael Moore has mellowed. He's not nearly as heavy handed as he used to be and I think he's learned that people may want to see the subject of his inquiry more than they wish to see his big, dumb guy shtick (even if big, dumb guy is why people always underestimate him and step in it.) If you hate him, go right ahead, but you have to admit he pokes his nose in some places that do deserve some poking. The health care system of the US of A is a train wreck that warrants some world class nose poking and he goes at it with his usual sarcastic gusto.

So Michael doesn't make his movie about the 50 million Americans who lack insurance altogether, but rather about the horror stories of those who do and are failed by a system rigged for profit. These stories will make you cry and he handles them with more courtesy and care than I could have imagined. He throws in a little trademark grandstanding for fun, but most of the film is real people who've lived the real tragedies of losing a loved one or the family home because of an inability to pay. He contrasts these stories with interviews with happy Europeans and Canadians who never have these worries. Okay, I didn't buy that either.

BUT, this is a film that makes one think. Maybe the fact that we have the world's most expensive health care system doesn't mean we have the best. Maybe socialized medicine is not something devised by Satan to deny people decent care. If you look at the systems of France (gasp) and the U.K. - there are some very viable solutions that we should be looking at and I had to wonder why we are so willing to believe that every other developed nation in the world has socialized medicine because it's such a terrible idea. Love him or hate him, Michael makes us reexamine ourselves. It's worth doing. Check his facts here.