HW 25 - Response to Sicko

1. A one paragraph precis of 125 words or less - Michael Moore's 125 word version of the film, proportional to the film. -

Sicko is a documentary of the american health care system in contrast to the UK, Canada and France. Director Michael Moore examines how the health care system in america got to be the way it is today by using HMO's (Health Maitenence Orginizations) that focus more on profit than the actual concern of the person. He travels to the UK, Canada and France and interviews several people with health care plans on how they live their lives. The film asks how we got here, why we got here and gives a slightly biased look on the american healthcare system.

2. Evidence -

a. Argument: People who have basic health needs are not being attended to

b. 1. 50 million americans live without health insurance

2. The more people that are denied health insurance, the bigger the bonus.

The first piece of evidence is important to supporting Moore's thesis because when a majority of the american population is living without health insurance, this already shows that a majority of people have basic health needs that are not being attended to. The second piece of evidence is important for supporting his thesis because it goes to show that even people with health insurance were denied basic health needs.

c&d. In the CNN article: CNN's Gupta Fact Checks Michael Moore's 'Sicko' by Brad Wilmouth, Dr. Sanjay Gupta states in an interview with Anderson Cooper, Michael Moore and Karen Ignagi that "So Americans do pay more, but the United States also ranks highest in patient satisfaction. And Americans have shorter wait times than everyone but Germans when seeking non-emergency elective procedures like hip replacement, cataract surgery or knee repair". After researching this fact I found that Dr. Sanjay Gupta was partially correct. After researching Gupta's first point about the United States ranking highest in patient satisfaction, i could nowhere find any evidence of this point. Although In an article by Bob Doherty: "the U.S. does better than most on having shorter wait times for diagnostic procedures, elective surgery, and specialty care" (http://getbetterhealth.com/wait-times-for-medical-care-how-the-us-actually-measures-up/2010.02.02)

3. Response -

As a response to the movie, to me the most important excerpts of Sicko were

1. The smoking gun behind Michael Moore's argument, the Nixon tape

2. The interviews of the people who had lost their lives due to the American health care system

3. The interviews of the people who had free health care (U.K, France etc...)

4. Dr. Linda Pino's speech before congress of denying health care to a man, and earning the company more profit

This movie affected my perspective on the dominant social practices around illness and dying in our culture greatly. I might have always known as a general fact of what i hear around me that the american health care system is terrible but never till i watched Sicko did i really understand why.