Journal Entry #5: Sicko

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Summary of Sicko

Sicko is an informative documentary on the healthcare system in the USA. It explores issues such as insurance companies denying claims (without good reason), insurance companies denying insurance based on pre-existing medical condition, and advantages of a universal healthcare system. The documentary also talks about how many politicians have been bought by health insurance and drug companies. In Sicko, the healthcare systems of France, Canada, the UK, and Cuba are compared to the American system to prove that universal healthcare could work in the USA as well.

Thoughts and Opinion

 The information in Sicko is presented in an interesting and factual way; once you start watching it, you don’t want to stop watching it until the end. Sicko explores the healthcare system in-depth and attempts to dispel the myths about universal healthcare. There are bits of humour in the documentary to lighten up the mood, however, some parts become fairly serious. Overall, at the end of the movie, you feel like you need to do something in order to change the healthcare system in the US. Since Sicko makes the viewer want to do something to solve the healthcare problem; the target audience is the American public. The purpose of Sicko is to inspire Americans to work together and introduce a universal healthcare system. By watching this documentary, I learned quite a bit about the American healthcare system, as well as some interesting things about the healthcare system in the UK, France, and Cuba. For example, I didn’t know that the British system pays the patient’s travel expenses to get to the hospital. Sicko was made in 2007; I want to know whether the information presented is still relevant today, and how much of a change has there been in the American healthcare system. I also wonder whether health insurance companies still deny claims without good reason. An article (May 2010), that I read after watching Sicko,  says that a new act, passed after Obama became president, prevents health insurance companies from denying coverage based on pre-existing medical conditions. The article also claims that “Sicko … still stands as a reminder of the vital necessity of new health care legislation.” Based on this information, Sicko is still relevant today and that the American healthcare system is not completely cured yet.

Link to article: http://mantlethought.org/content/health-care-do-americans-still-need-moore