Sicko (2007)

 

Love or hate Michael Moore, there's little point in denying that when he's on a roll, he is painfully on a roll exposing some of the US's biggest flaws. Sure, he's no stranger to the occasional hyperbole and the odd dashes and splashes of emotionally over-wrought imagery, but, well, it's often a lot more entertaining than just doing nothing but present cold, hard facts, right? 

'Sicko' is in fact a rather poignant take on the American system of health care and how privatisation and commercialism has pretty much fucked it right into the ground since Nixon introduced the damn thing. 

No kidding: for a European, this stuff is insanely hard to comprehend. Eespecially why US citizens don't revolt en masse to change it into a system like the European that - even with its flaws - is still a million times better than whatever they've got in the US right now. And probably will still have for a long time, as there is so much money involved, no one sees it change anytime soon. 

You have my sympathies, US citizens. I sincerely hope you don't get very ill or have an accident, because if your health care insurance is even remotely like the picture Moore paints, you're royally screwed. 

Because this is basically the tale of people with insurance that still got into problems, even to the point of avoidable fatalities. It's insane to what lengths companies will go to make a profit without any regard for human life whatsoever. Heck, if you're not foaming at the mouth whilst observing these atrocities, you can be pretty sure you're either way too jaded or dead. 

I have no idea if this is great viewing for US citizens, if only to see how it can be different. But to be fair: the average families in France and Britain that Moore talks to, aren't exactly average. They are most definitely upper middle class. Then again: US people can see how a 'socialised' system works to the benefit of all. It's insane how the propaganda throughout the years has instilled this completely pointless fear of government organised health care. But hey, it worked for the companies, right? And for Europeans watching this, you will probably be amazed at how absolute crap the US system is. Although in all fairness (and I'm sorry to have to say this): in a lot of ways, the US systems absolutely suck monkeyballs. Heck, I know the Belgian system is flawed, but when considering either unemployment or health care, it's probably still a million times better than what the US still has. 

So yeah, if you want to get angry at insanely insane and inhumane systems, have a watch. It's pretty eye-opening. And even though the government surely doesn't need to control every part of society, there are absolutely benefits to having a more 'socialist' system in place. But watch this and you decide.