(2006, USA, 113 minutes. Now in theaters)

Review by Carl Schroeder

What does the United States get right, and what does it not? Americans should be willing to ask themselves this question; God knows the rest of the world does. The riveting new documentary film Sicko makes gut-wrenchingly clear that Americans have over-protected their rights to pursue private enterprise at the expense of the health of families and friends.

The overall health care of Americans ranks 37th in the world, only slightly ahead of Slovenia and Cuba. Why? Because we’re the only developed nation that refuses a national health care system. Instead we place the wellbeing of our men, women, and children in the hands of for-profit insurance companies. We learn that the average baby now has a better chance of surviving in any Latin American country than in the United States. That’s right. Americans have the highest infant mortality rate of any nation in the Western Hemisphere, far worse than Canada.

Defenders of family values and pro-life take note. Please! This isn’t about what you think of gadfly director Michael Moore anymore, because once and for all he’s made a film that cuts across political lines to address a harsh reality that’s affecting us all.

President Nixon authorized the HMO revolution in 1971 under advisement of Edgar Kaiser from the now mega-corporation Kaiser Permanente, proclaiming this would ensure the health and security of every American. But no, the system grew to encourage competition for profits by denying health care to higher risk individuals whenever possible. You’ve heard the horror stories: Hospitals dumping old women with broken bones, still in their hospital gowns, at the curb of homeless shelters when the money runs out; health plans that get retroactively cancelled when treatment expenses run too high, leaving hard-working families devastated and bankrupt; the baby that dies enroute to a different hospital after the mother begs in vain for the out-of-network doctors to treat her. It’s all true, and just the tip of the iceberg. Nixon lied (imagine that!) and ever since, people have died.

Social services like firemen and police and schools are universally available, but in this land of opportunity we traded socialized medicine for socialized suffering. Now even the richest Americans fare worse on average than the poorest citizens of Canada, England, or France - all places where good doctors can focus on giving sick people what they need, not just what their insurance will pay for.

It’s interesting that this film is being marketed as funny, because it isn’t. While there are some extremely clever and ironic scenes – one coup involves taking ailing 9/11 cleanup volunteers to Cuba where they receive better healthcare than they’ve gotten in years and costing nada – Sicko is much more intense and inspiring than a Michael Moore publicity stunt. Thousands of victims on all sides of the system came forward when asked, including families of dead loved ones who were denied coverage when they needed it most, as well as the guilt-ridden HMO employees who were paid bonuses for denying that coverage.

Sicko is nothing less than a deeply affecting call to arms, so let’s make that arms of love, not war. Wouldn’t it just be worth it to know that every American was taken care of, no matter old, sick, or poor? Moore introduces Canadians, Brits, and French who convincingly tell us how proud, secure, and happy they are to participate in nations that provide national health care to all. Families can grow without fear, doctors can swear to do no harm and mean it. Quality is fine, drugs are cheap, standards of living are high. The only thing missing are the billion dollar CEOs.

Go see Sicko, and don’t let anyone tell you that national health care can’t happen here. One of the criticisms of the film - apart from some bias and grandstanding which is par (excellence) for Michael Moore - is that no solution details are offered. But hey – what’s so hard to figure out? Everyone else is doing it except the U.S. For a country founded on the pursuit of happiness, the United States is just shockingly late arriving at the importance of addressing the real needs of people and supplying the joy of more secure living that so many have already figured out.

Carl Schroeder writes for The Global Intelligencer and publishes the MysticalMovieGuide.com website, which researches and reviews thousands of films with intriguing psychological and spiritual themes across all genres, countries, and styles - plus tips on where to find them.