Sicko is a documentary film with the focus on depicting cons of the U.S. health care system. The primary theme of this movie is a failure of the U.S. government to create an effective health care system, so all U.S. citizens receive adequate and affordable medical treatment. Moore, the author of the documentary film, shows that in other developed countries, such as Canada, France, Great Britain, health care system is publicly funded, and governments provide various services and reimburse all out-of-pocket payments. Moore states that according to the World Health Organization, health care system of the United States is ranked 37 out of 191. The reason for this low rank (in comparison to the greatest economy in the world) is that life expectancy and infant mortality are on the same level as in the countries with less developed economies.
Many people were denied medical care, and this is one of the main problems that the Sicko movie address. The film showed that insurance company physicians receive bonuses if they find adequate reasons why policy holders should not be covered in full by the insurance companies. In this way, profitability of the insurance company increases and economy of the country gets stronger, but many people suffer from how insurance companies treat their customers. One of the examples in the movie is that 9/11 rescue workers could not receive a part of government funds to receive treatment of their psychological and physical maladies that developed after the incident. As they could not afford medical care in their own country, they had to move to Havana, where they received a free medical treatment at one of the hospitals, and could afford buying cheap medicine. Sicko shows that the main reason why health care system in the U.S. fails to meet the needs of all people is that many politicians receive millions from the healthcare industry as donations for their political campaigns.
The filmmaker came up with the conclusion that healthcare treatment is provided in the United States in an ineffective way, and should be changed to become socialized public services. This way, citizens would receive better care, and there would be no hopeless and sick people with no access to health care. Also, Moore claimed that all people have to help each other, and as a proof of this statement, he sent $12,000 to his main critic Jim Kenefick to support his sick wife.
The most important lesson that can be learnt about medical anthropology from watching Sicko movie is that today people with money are viewed as potential candidates to receive medical treatment as they can afford it. Other people with no medical insurance are viewed as poor citizens who should work more to afford buying medicine and paying for their healthcare treatment. Global health care becomes more effective as other countries tend to reform their health care systems, so people who cannot afford medical treatment receive the necessary funds from the government.
Three questions came to mind when I was watching this movie:
How come the country that is considered “The Land of the Free” be under the rule of the giants of the health care industry who influence how health care system works in the United States?
If the United States is the country with the greatest economy in the world, why it does not care about poor people who cannot afford medical treatment?
If all people receive equal medical treatment in communist country, why communism is bad?
