Sicko: DVD Review (2007)

Michael Moore's documentary wants you to know that the No. 1 health crisis facing Americans today aren't the usual suspects--heart disease and cancer--but the state of our health care system, which is in a state of disaster.

Considering that nearly 47 million Americans are uninsured and millions more hold policies designed to screw them out of their benefits, it is, at the very least, a productive system in that it defeats plenty.

When it works, it also successfully saves millions. But since Moore believes that everyone in the United States deserves access to health care, the focus here is on all those who have been undone by the system, which is no small number to consider.

While there are laughs to be had in "Sicko," the movie mostly is dead serious in attacking our government's failure to depart from a system designed for profit--which is the American way.

The film isn't about bashing our doctors or nurses--Moore knows we have among the best in the world. Instead, it's a movie about raising awareness about a broken system, with the director questioning whether other countries with socialized medicine have it better.

Why, he wonders, does socialism remain so feared here? Education is socialized. So is Medicare and Social Security. For the most part, those efforts seem to work--why not health care?

Though he errs in not showing the downside of those systems in other countries and he doesn't allow the insurance companies to respond directly to his concerns, which is a mistake since it could have been their undoing, what he does generate is a provocative, persuasive argument that can't go ignored.

Rated PG-13. Grade: A-