Sunday 1 February 2015

Michael Moore's film "SICKO"

If you haven't seen this film then you really should. Seriously, you really really should. I guarantee that you will be cured (excuse the pun) of any temptation to believe that the US system of private insurance based healthcare is in any way preferable to the NHS. Unfortunately the UK media bombards us with stories about NHS failures or problems and yet we hear very little about the failings of alternative healthcare systems such as that of the USA.
As Moore's film makes clear, over five million Americans have no access to healthcare at all due to not being able to afford to pay the insurance premiums. So we get scenes of young men stitching up their gaping wounds with a needle and thread. However the film is mainly about those who do have health insurance and how the big healthcare companies screw them over by, for example,  invoking obscure clauses in the contract so as not to pay out. We find out about just how much these companies donate to US politicians in order to buy their support. We also get to see rescue workers from 9 -11 who have become ill due to breathing toxic fumes and who cannot get healthcare. In one bizarre scene they even try to get into Guantanamo Bay, where healthcare is free.
This is a brilliant film. See the trailer below:


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