CHRISTIAN ETHICS AND THE MOVIES
Reviewed By David A. Thomas,
Assoc. Prof. of Rhetoric, Emeritus, University of richmond1
Sicko (2007)
I wouldn’t pay ten cents to see a Michael Moore movie,” a woman told me when I said that I had just seen Sicko. Michael Moore, Oscar winner for 2002’s Bowling for Columbine, also made Fahrenheit 9/11, an anti-Bush polemic in 2004 that infuriated many Republicans. Surprisingly, it crushed box office records when it earned over $200 million world wide, and won the Palm d’Or, the Cannes Film Festival’s highest award in the bargain. So far, I’ve seen Sicko twice. Both times, the audience applauded. The first time, on the movie’s opening day, the audience interrupted the movie with applause frequently. But not everyone appreciates his movies.
There is no doubt that Michael Moore’s movies are rhetorical. They are intended to be social texts that influence public opinion. Moore is a political lightning rod who attracts visceral reactions, pro and con, whatever he does. His movies are opinionated, to be sure. He is passionate about the subjects of all five of his documentaries to date.
With regard to Sicko, Moore takes pains to be a degree or two less obnoxious than usual. In a two-part CNN interview with Moore on July 8-9, 2007, without editing, Wolf Blitzer said he thought the movie is “powerful.” Moore replied that in view of the media’s [read: CNN’s] never covering any good stories about France, Canada, or England’s health care systems, he is now the “balanced” source on the subject.
Sicko is the least partisan and most objective movie Moore has made to date. No one is “ambushed,” journalistically speaking. Moore excoriates politicians, as usual. This time he targets congressional members on both the left and the right side of the aisles who have sold out to the insurance and pharmaceutical lobbies. That includes Hillary Clinton, known for her efforts to enact a universal health care system in 1993, to the ridicule of the whole country. Now she is the second highest recipient of the industries’ campaign contributions. Ironically, thanks to Michael Moore, today the country may be more receptive to her original idea; but will she still be positioned to resume a leadership role?
The major health debate in America today revolves around coverage for the enormous number of uninsured people. The number continues to rise almost exponentially as corporations drop benefits. In the last presidential campaign a couple of years ago, the figure of 36 million people was bandied about as the size of the uninsured population. Today it is 50 million. Apart from group plans, it is generally difficult for anyone to obtain affordable health insurance coverage. There is nothing in place to halt this trend.
However, Sicko is not about the uninsured. From the beginning, Moore’s narrative directs attention to the 250 million insured Americans who believe, often wrongly, that their coverage is adequate. The first part of Sicko tells stories of tragic misadventures people have had with their health insurance. Moore claims that everyone in the audience has had such problems, or knows someone who has. Speaking for myself, that is a true statement. Insurance has proved to be less and less of a solution, as insurance companies multiply the number of illnesses they will not cover—seemingly the ones that people actually come down with—and also increase limits to the amount they will pay off.
For just one example, we see a well insured middle-class couple who had successfully raised six children and educated them in top schools, only to lose everything to medical expenses when their combined insurance ran out. They ended up moving into their grown daughter’s basement when they lost their home in bankruptcy. The movie shows other true horror stories where people suffered financially, even died, for lack of access to a necessary operation or medicine.
Sicko also spotlights the shameful stories of MDs and other medical professionals whose highly paid jobs are to meet quotas of denials of payment, solely in order to maximize HMO and insurance company profits. One tactic shown was when companies devise sophisticated methods for eliminating claims. For instance, although you might not have actually had some specific preexisting condition when you bought your insurance, one company says that as a “prudent” person you ought to have known that you would develop it, therefore your claim will be denied.
The most poignant stories in Sicko, the ones most people talk about after seeing the movie, revolve around a group of 9/11 volunteer EMTs who had worked to rescue victims at Ground Zero. They contracted devastating respiratory problems and are now disabled. Because they were all volunteers and not covered by New York City or other government insurance, they had no recourse and are not receiving any care. Moore chartered a boat and took them to Guantanamo, where he first requested the U. S. military to give these 9/11 heroes the same free medical care they provide to Gitmo’s detainees. Being rebuffed in that attempt, he took his patients to clinics in Havana, where they were welcomed and all received excellent care and medicines—for free. No one denies Moore’s resourcefulness resulted in Cuba providing what America’s health care system refused these heroes, but Moore has been attacked politically for going to Cuba.
Many other Americans have also gone abroad to obtain the medical care that is priced out of reach at home. Moore takes us on a quick tour of Canada, France, and England, where universal health care is freely available to all, including expatriate Americans who moved there just for the purpose. In these scenes, Moore debunks the standard propaganda put out by the AMA and the health care industry lobbies about the evils of “socialized medicine.” There is a stark contrast between other countries and our system.
Ethical Considerations. Midway through the movie, Moore asks, “What has happened to us as a people?” Later, the movie ends with the question, “Why is the U.S. the only Western country that fails to provide free universal health care for everyone?” These are embarrassing, albeit legitimate questions. Sicko takes on the greed and inhumane decision making of the health care system, trading health care coverage for maximizing profits. Sicko focuses on the major HMOs and insurance companies, and to an extent, on the top pharmaceutical companies. Sicko will be a major catalyst for putting a national health service on the public agenda. Hopefully, serious attention will also be paid to price gouging (where it exists) by doctors, hospitals, HMOs, and Big Pharma. Assuming that the Bush Administration will have shifted the Iraq War policy to a major troop drawdown by then, public health could become just as important as Iraq in the 2008 presidential election campaign. Sicko conflates the political with the ethical. We do not think twice about providing free schools, police, and fire protection. Why not universal health care? How, in principle, are they different? The answer lies in the private enterprise system that has four lobbyists for every legislator, and spends hundreds of millions annually to combat any reforms. That politicians rely on their contributions every election year doesn’t help.
