Health care has become an important issue in America.  As the Baby Boomers grow older and begin to retire, they are not only taxing the already overdrawn Social Security system, but also are demanding more and more medical care of a higher caliber as well.  Pharmaceutical companies, HMOs, insurance companies, doctors, hospitals – all of these are driving up prices and seeking to capitalize on this coming boom in the business of keeping people healthy and alive.  Yet medical care is, in many cases, a necessity and not simply an elective.  Is it really something that certain groups should be able to profit from?

That question is something which resounds at the heart of Sicko, the new documentary by Michael Moore.  Moore, the always hilarious and inflammatory filmmaker, hits this movie out of the park, creating his funniest and most heartwarming movie to date.

In this film, Moore elects not to focus on those who do not have insurance and have to suffer the vagaries and inflated prices of the medical world on their own.  Instead, he takes a deeper look into the lives of those who do have insurance, coverage that they thought was good and sufficient.  However, when crises arise, suddenly there’s a loophole here and fine print there and the health care just won’t cover what their customers need to stay alive.

Moore also goes overseas to Canada, England and France to take a look at their health care systems and to show that a single payer system does indeed work and is a viable option.  In fact, America is the only well-developed Western nation which does not offer government health care.

The Sicko DVD also contains over 80 minutes of material never seen before, including a trip to Washington DC, the theatrical trailer, a company more successfully socialist than France, a GE employee in France, and a different kind of Hollywood premiere.  This is an incredible film, an acute crises, and an important debate for America to answer.

Sicko shows where health care in America is ill and provides the beginnings of a road map to recovery.

This DVD is available at Amazon.com.

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