Is Sicko Really Accurate ?!
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Michael Moore
manorafael — 9 years ago(August 16, 2016 12:37 AM)
Long story short, I have moved from Brazil to United States and although is an improvement, in Brazil I had opportunity to study in a University for free and had free health care, not the best but it works
After watching the movie Sicko, I was wondering, is it accurate? Did anything change from the time it was released to 2016 ? -
joetigersfan — 9 years ago(September 29, 2016 07:53 PM)
No. It's very INACCURATE. Like he does with all his movies, Moore manipulates facts, time frames, and contexts in order to get what message he wants to convey. In Sicko, he profiled the one GOOD hospital in Cuba, and protrayed it as main stream and status quo. In reality, it is the place where rich people, movie stars, politicians, athletes, etc, i.e. people who can afford top notch health care,go to get treated. Health care in the rest of Cuba is unsanitary, substandard and in short supply.
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Satan2016 — 9 years ago(October 18, 2016 05:13 PM)
Here's a true description of Cuba and the poverty of the masses. Not what tourists see or the fantasy liberal utopia.
The Last Communist City
http://www.city-journal.org/html/last-communist-city-13649.html
As for the free health care, patients have to bring their own medicine, their own bedsheets, and even their own iodine to the hospital. Most of these items are available only on the illegal black market, moreover, and must be paid for in hard currencyand sometimes theyre not avb68ailable at all. Cuba has sent so many doctors abroadespecially to Venezuela, in exchange for oilthat the island is now facing a personnel shortage. I dont want to say there are no doctors left, says an American man who married a Cuban woman and has been back dozens of times, but the island is now almost empty. I saw a banner once, hanging from somebodys balcony, that said, DO I NEED TO GO TO VENEZUELA FOR MY HEADACHE? -
kelsey94568 — 9 years ago(October 18, 2016 07:59 PM)
I've been to Cuba to study abroad and I can say that the medical clinics and hospitals there are old and outdated. I didn't see anything state of the art, nor anything from this century. Reminded me of Soviet-era construction. And the doctors there said they would not be able to provide us Americans with "free healthcare". I'm pretty sure our school took out health insurance policies for us just in case (included in the costs for the tri2000p).
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Starduster — 9 years ago(October 18, 2016 11:11 PM)
Honestly, I feel that Sicko was one of his best movies but it is FAR from accurate.
At best it's value is in spotlighting the fact that our health care is NOT what it should be. This movie was made before Obamacare and I am not aware of any particular statement from Moore that our health care system is suddenly improved in any way he would have envisioned. -
Starduster — 9 years ago(October 31, 2016 02:06 AM)
O5b4bamacare is anything but free. It is claimed that premiums will go up an average of 25% in 2017. So far it has delivered little if amything of what was promised.
Moore has long been a supporter of democratic liberal policies. I have not heard Moore comment on Obamacare, although I admittedly dont follow him all that much. It just seems like Obamacare is a far cry from anything that Moore would envision as a "good" healthcare program, based on what we saw in the movie, Sicko.
Some states have extended Medicaid, to cover people who cant afford healthcare. I would say that Medicaid is closer to what Moore would like to see, but it is impossible economically to include everyone in the plan. -
jgrayson_au — 9 years ago(November 10, 2016 08:28 AM)
Putting aside Sicko for a moment I want to talk about two people.
Myself and my cousin. We both have cancer. I'm Aussie, my cousin is from Arizona.
My cousin has medical insurance, but still pays out of pocket costs. Roughly, it costs them
$15k per year
for everything from chemo to transfusions (leukemia) to transport and meds and so on.
I have paid in total since diagnosis about $300 or so. My costs included a 9 day stay in hospital, neurosurgery, ongoing medications, chemo and so on. In addition, I don't work anymore so I have a disability pension of ~$400/week.
Our system isn't perfect in Australia. There's still areas we can improve on. But generally speaking the two systems are different because of differing interests.
In universal health care, the money comes from the TAX PAYER. They hate paying taxes, but they ALSO hate dying / getting sick. So the Goverment (the middle man) has a vested interest to tax as low as they can, whilst still not letting anyone die.
In corporate user pay health care, the money comes from YOU. That's on you. If you have insurance (the middle man), they have a vested interest to the share holders. So they want to deny as many claims or pay you as little as possible.
Universal Health Care will always be superior simply by design.