Michael Moore's Newest Documentary Discussion: Sicko

[disneyboy20022]

http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0oGki_.I3dG7 ... 23348/info

Acclaimed filmmaker Michael Moore sets out to investigate the American healthcare system. Sticking to his tried-and-true one-man approach, Moore sheds light on the complicated medical affairs of individuals and local communities

Ok while I realize Michael Moore is not everyone's favorite Filmmaker in the world.... This film I think we can unite on...

I mean I read somewhere someone online stated they are very republican and Pro-Bush (back when Fairenheit 9/11 was out on DVD or just got released to theaters) and Michael moore had announced he had interest in filming about medical health insurance and going in depth into the Pharmaceiutcal companies to find out stuff... And this was before the HIPPA law and all those who are very involved medically probably know what that is... It's a new medical law that is like on a questionaire it says are you dead or alive.... or it says on the form can you see or are you blind please check here... anyway this person who posted then said this is and may be the only film we can unite together on because while politics are very split down the line when Fairenheit 9/11 came out..... when was the last time someone said that they loved their HMO Plan or was actually excited about Oh Boy I get to pay my co-pay plus be excited to pay Hundreds close to 1 thousand dollars just to get health insurance and that is not counting co-pays... So What average joe or average jane is happy to pay all that money:

Someone that wants to pay HMO Co-pays plus 900+ Healther insurance is which one of the following

A: No one

B: Someone that is a very very Grande' El'Stupido aka Stupid....

C: A & B

D: none of the above

Anyway the documentary film Sicko directed by Michael Moore comes to theaters June 29th 2007

Also another note back when Farenheit 9/11 was on DVD Michael Moore was on The Tonight show with Jay Leno..... He said that the Medical agencies and Pharmaceutical companies had a letter and a notice on given to all the employees who worked there stating not to talk to a chubby guy with a hat and a camera and a jacket on and casual pants and in fact they even had a 1-800 number if you spotted a man that matched the description.. So he had aquired the notice and was giving it to his friends and family to call the number and say the following message: "He's In the Building"

[Disney-Fan]

I really hate the dude. No matter how much I agree with his documentaries' various agendas, the fact that he pushes so hard and in such a subjective fashion really makes me want to do a Moore-style documentary about the a$s he is.

[yoda_four]

disneyboy. Could you embed that link into a word, then the page wouldn't stretch out so long. Thanks.

I pirated the film a few days ago. It's Moore's least biased doc yet, and probably the one with the most soul. I loved his trip around the world, where he checks out the healthcare systems in Canada, Britain, France, and Cuba. By the end of the movie, he just leaves you feeling a great deal of respect for people and humanity overall, which just makes you question even more how a place like America chooses to not have universal health care for it's people. It's pretty sickening.

Anyways, I recommend you check it out, despite your personal opinion of Moore or of his previous films. Keep an open mind and maybe you'll learn something - I certainly did.

[PapiBear]

I've been listening to Michael Moore's recent appearances on the Democracy Now! radio program, and I have to admit - what I've been hearing about how the health care industry operates is absolutely disgusting and deeply immoral. Moore might thumb his nose at the power brokers and irritate them and their lackeys because of it, but he's dead-on in his criticism of HMOs, and he's exposed them as the immoral cretins they are through a variety of very open and legitimate methods.

Anyone who thinks that health care is a privilege, rather than a basic human right for all, deserves a severe beatdown, including broken limbs, then being asked for their credit card number and mother's maiden name before being given a painkiller.

[Princess Stitch]

I've always enjoyed Michael Moore's films since we watched Roger&Me in my highschool (can't remember which class though). I'll go watch this movie when it's released. I'll also probably be thanking my lucky stars that I live in Canada and we don't pay for our health care.

I guess I don't realize how lucky we are until I hear Americans complaining how simple trips to the hospital cost them thousands of dollars

[blackcauldron85]

I missed the very beginning, a couple minutes in the middle, and the last couple minutes, but last night I watched this movie. It was very facinating; I'm interested in certain social issues, such as financial issues (poverty and whatnot), so I found it very interesting.

Minor spoilers below, so FYI.

I had never seen anything by Michael Moore, but I know that there's a controvery around him, but I thought that the movie was well-made, and he did a great thing. He brought over a few 9/11 volunteer rescue workers to Cuba, since he found out that people in the US can get free medical care there. These people, who either pay a crapload of money here in the US for their care, and/or don't get adequate care here, saw the doctor for free, and got some medicine for a lot cheaper than they would here. One lady has really bad respiratory problems, and she pays $120 a month in the U.S. for her inhalers, and they cost 5 cents in Cuba.

Also, in the beginning, they showed a guy, in the U.S., who had 2 fingers cut off, his middle finger and his ring finger. He had to decide to save his middle finger (at the cost of $60,000) or his ring finger (for $12,000). He saved his ring finger. Later, someone in France was told this (the Frenchman had also needed fingers reattached), and he just couldn't believe that the person had to decide which finger to save.

In other countries, they get healthcare for free- it's paid for by taxes and the government.

Another segment of the film showed a woman talking about her baby daughter who had a fever of 104 or higher. The girl was brought to a hospital, but then after they called her insurance company, they discovered that they couldn't help her there, and she had to be transported to another hospital. Insteaad of receiving help right away to save her life, the baby died.

I don't know much about politics, but over the years, I've become a little more interested in them. So, I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to how politics work, but the fact that people are dying and/or not being able to get their body parts reattached is just awful.

Oh, and another segment talked about how if some people can't afford their hospital bills, they are taxi'd to shelters, in their flimsy hospital gowns, without being told where they're going, and they still have their untreated health problems. Some people still have IVs in their arms when they get to the shelters! That is horrible.

The film kind of made me less proud to be an American. Healthcare is something near and dear to me, since I have medical problems; heck, when I was born, I had life-saving surgery. Luckily my parents were able to pay back the debt, but other babies in my situation likely have died from not having the surgery. That sickens me.

Bobby walked in as I was watching the movie, at a point when Michael was talking to a French couple. Bobby was all like, "But this couple makes $8,000 a month", yadda yadda yadda. He's not a Democrat like I am; we see the world differently. I said that that was just one couple- they also talked to a group of Americans living in France, and surely they weren't rich. I mean, they probably weren't poor, but probably middle class.

Bobby mentioned how, in socialist countries, half of your money goes towards poorer people; he said that "If you make $60,000 a year, $30,000 of that goes towards poorer people so they'll have $30,000 a year". Big freaking boo hoo. Bobby pays a tithe to the church- to me, that's not much different, so why is he complaining? I don't really know much about Socialism or anything, but if that means universal health care, I think that I'm for it.

My brother lives in Russia, and I just emailed him asking about how the healthcare system is there. I already do a lot of volunteer work and whatnot, but I'm so passionate about this topic now that I know about it, so I have a lot more research to do to see what I can do to learn and help.

Bobby said how I don't know the other side of the story- I guess he meant about the good U.S. healthcare does? I don't know, but, again, I can do some research.

[Disney's Divinity]

Bobby mentioned how, in socialist countries, half of your money goes towards poorer people; he said that "If you make $60,000 a year, $30,000 of that goes towards poorer people so they'll have $30,000 a year". Big freaking boo hoo. Bobby pays a tithe to the church- to me, that's not much different, so why is he complaining? I don't really know much about Socialism or anything, but if that means universal health care, I think that I'm for it.

Well, there kind of is a difference between $6,000 and $30,000. I'm mostly democrat, but to force someone to give up half their income is kind of ridiculus.

[Widdi]

Bobby mentioned how, in socialist countries, half of your money goes towards poorer people; he said that "If you make $60,000 a year, $30,000 of that goes towards poorer people so they'll have $30,000 a year". Big freaking boo hoo. Bobby pays a tithe to the church- to me, that's not much different, so why is he complaining? I don't really know much about Socialism or anything, but if that means universal health care, I think that I'm for it.

Well, there kind of is a difference between $6,000 and $30,000. I'm mostly democrat, but to force someone to give up half their income is kind of ridiculus.

Except for the fact that usually in nations where citizens are taxed 50% of their income they recieve A LOT back for it. I'm talking free university, universal health, drug, vision, hearing and dental care, life insurance issued bu the state, a very low cost of living as well as public servants who do EVERYTHING for you. It's not like they just take half your money and you benefit in no way from it.

[blackcauldron85]

Yeah, free college was briefly mentioned in the film, too- that is incredible. What strikes me is how, yes, there are still classes (upper, middle, and lower class), but just because someone is lower class doesn't mean that they miss out on opportunities, such as health care. I haven't looked into free university, as far as if it's available for each and every person who wants it, or if there is a minimum grade point average you need to have or something, but in the U.S., there are so many people who would go to college if they could. There was a girl I went to high school with who I worked with at the grocery store, and she was saving up to go to college, since I guess her parents wouldn't pay for it or couldn't pay for it...my parents paid my tuition (I paid for textbooks and other expenses), and I'm so lucky to have had them support my education.

[Widdi]

Well I assume graduating from High School would be a requirement. But generally these places have a very low drop-out rate, and I'm sure there are programs in place for those who do leave school to go back as what we call Mature Students.

[2099net]

Firstly, I don't know about the Canadian or French segments of Sicko, but
the British coverage was somewhat "manipulated", shall we say? While nothing he said was untrue or incorrect, it was certainly ignoring some of the negative issues the NHS has.

That said, in the last 6 months both my brother and father had had treatment and tests on the NHS and both received excellent A-1 service. Thankfully, in both cases the tests were negative and they only spent a day and night under observation.

As for giving up around half your income, that's both true and false. It's true that the more money your earn, the closer to half your income you give up - but inevitably like in the US, the rich use "creative accounting" to avoid paying much tax. I doubt those in the top 10% of income pay anything close to 50% on the money that should be. Those who don't earn as much don't pay half because there's a sliding scale of income tax based on what you earn. My pay has about 25% deductions.

Look here:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=334
Note since this period of this graph however, tax has gone up for all earnings over £150,000 to 50% (but only for any income above £150,000 per year, the rest is at the lower rate)

But even then, I'm not really giving up 25% of my pay as such. Because we all know the tax rate, and the tax rate is effectively taken into account when we accept jobs or people set salaries for jobs. It's just a figure on paper - you never see the money, so you never really lose it. Also our tax is paid by deductions at source, so we don't have to give it up. I never feel I'm losing my money, but when tax does change by the odd percentage point, I certainly feel as if I'm losing/gaining something (although in practice it's always been less than £150 a year either way, hardly earth shattering).

I think generally UK income is higher than US income when averaged out - but of course of our income, more goes to the government probably meaning that while on average our salaries are higher, perhaps on average our actual spending money is similar or just below the average US salary.

Plus a lot of people who earn decent money are still eligible for benefits beyond healthcare etc. Such as any family with children, no matter what their income get a weekly benefit.

Our tax goes on lots of things - not just healthcare. We have more generous benefits for those unemployed for example - I don't know about you, but that makes me feel better in these current hard economic times. I mean, there's lots of benefits some people don't even know. Notice how lots of British DVDs have audio descriptive tracks on for the blind or visually impaired? That's because Government grants cover the majority of the cost of recording one. Being as I have a friend who is legally blind, it's something I'm grateful for.