Sucking n Shocking: ‘Sicko’ Reveals

Michael Moore's latest flick has finally hit the nail on the head. The release of Sicko in the American theatres has heaped up a controversy. Released on 29th June 2007, this documentary film not only investigates the US healthcare system but also point out numerous loopholes associated with it. These loopholes have been featured as those US health insurance companies that function at the cost of the lives of its citizens.

Christened as a wickedly funny satire by many, Sicko pungently reveals the inadequacies of the American healthcare system. Its narrative is infused with instances of the inhuman behavior of multiple health insurance companies who have been responsible for the death of numerous patients. The irony lies in the fact that these companies reward those employees who have helped to negate company expenditure by denying maximum number of health coverage requests. One such memorable piece recounted in the movie is that of Linda Peeno, who denied a life-saving operation to a man. Her decision was held in high esteem as she saved half a million dollars her company had to incur.

The shocking realities do not end here. The movie presents paraphernalia of woes caused due to the sucking policies of the American healthcare system. The exorbitant cost of American drugs is no news. But its adverse consequences on the commoners have been portrayed movingly. Frank, an elderly man, works at Pathmark to pay for his medicine. Next, we come across a married couple, who was forced to move in with their daughter because the father had three heart attacks, and the mother suffered serious problems as well. Moore almost moves the audience to tears when he projects the case Rick who accidentally chopped off the tops of his middle and ring fingers. Disclosing his inability to pay for both the operations, the hospital offered him a choice of reattaching his middle finger at 60,000$ or his ring finger at 12,000$. A romantic to the core, Rick chose his ring finger to be reattached for a bargain price of 12 grand.

All these instances are tragic indeed, but the interview with Becky, a health insurance worker, is a haunting one. She breaks down while recounting the experience of her grueling job. It is through her that Moore reveals how the American healthcare system not only leaves out 50 million uninsured citizens but also negates aid to the 250 million insured Americans. As Moore himself testifies, "This is not a broken system, this is a sick system", and Sicko presents a statement to Moore's vision.

This brilliantly directed film does well to make a comparison between the US healthcare system and the healthcare policies of such nations as France, Cuba, England, and Canada. The scene where Moore strolls around the streets of France with a doctor attending on house calls, presents a stark contrast to the inhospitable, rather hostile American healthcare system. The movie ends with Moore taking a group of 9/11 victims to Cuba, leaving a question unanswered: "Is it so hellish to live in America?" The answer, most certainly, lies with the people; but the movie, too, obliquely points to a solution: medical tourism. The new mantra of medical tourism has been attracting a lot of American patients to look for healthcare and medical facilities outside the US. So, if Sicko's reality bites, there is medical tourism to offer you a healing treatment!

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About Suzanne Macguire

Suzanne Macguire is an Internet marketing professional with expertise in content development and technical writing in a variety of industries. http://www.recoverdiscover.com/


And here is another random article you might be interested in...

The Importance Of Mentors

All the successful people I have ever known have had a mentor at some point in their life, someone who taught them and encouraged them to take risks with new experiences. I owe a great deal to the mentors in my life - Richard Ford, Krissy Jackson, Julie Hunt and more!

I've also worked closely with kids as a mentor. Here's a bit of history: I spent my highschool and university years working as a mentor in an Emerging Technologies Program. When I work with kids, I use just one basic principle: I never do anything for them that they could do for themselves. I act as a resource and work to wake kids up to their passions. I cannot give them passion, and I do not give them any answers. They must find passion and answers themselves.

When working with kids, we focus on answering these questions:

What do you want?
What do you have?
What do you need?
Where are you going to get it?
What will you do with it?

What do you want?

What someone wants is a good indicator of who they are as an individual. We work to get what we want. Where we work, what we study in order to do that work, who we work with, and what we think about, all create and change our personality.

This is where creating passion comes in. It is the passion to get what you want, and to learn and create that motivates people. By finding out what kids want to do, and then supporting them in every way possible, I facilitate their own learning process. I ask questions to help them find out what they want to do. I encourage them to explore for themselves ways to get what they want. I help them figure out what they want to learn. As I see it, a mentor should transfer responsibility for what has to be learned to the student, because when the student take on the responsibility, they will go beyond what anyone expects.

What do you have?

Determining your strengths, talents and skills, whether you're working alone or in a group, is the launch pad for all discovery. Determine what you have within the group itself and work together to share those skills. Knowing what you have is key to knowing what you need.

What do you need?

An important step in any project is determining the gap between the resources and information you already have and those that you need to complete the project.

A good mentor can accommodate different learning styles and abilities. The self-directed learners take off at their own pace, once they've been given a start. The ones that need a little or a lot of coaching get what they need because the mentor has time to give it. When I work with large groups, I just move from group to group as the students work, judging the emotional tone of the unit and giving encouragement or guidance as required.

Where are you going to get it?

Once you know what you have and know what you need, the next task is to figure out how to access the resources that you need. If you're mentoring a group, often, the information is there in the group. By asking and learning from each other, kids develop trust and confidence. With this confidence, they find it easier to admit that they don't know all the answers, and easier to approach other sources outside the group for help. This gives them great self-assurance and leads them to try an even bigger project next time. Every time they take on a new challenge, they learn something about the world and about themselves.

What will you do with it?

Now that you have all the skills and have worked to learn new ones, what will you do with your new found talents? I mentored around emerging technologies, helping kids become passionate about the internet and giving them the resources to learn how to design web pages. The kids I worked with, went on to do web design for real clients. They continued their learning on the job. They developed language and presentation skills, they learned how to interact with clients and meet deadlines, but most important they learned how to share expertise and how to find what they needed. They learned to be mentors and find mentors.

Every time the students met a client or made a presentation of a completed project, they were performing. Performance changes you. It is one of the milestones of life that I think everyone should experience. Practice is fine, but actually getting up and demonstrating what you have learned, be it a piano concerto or your own first Web site, is a life-changing experience. The more performance opportunities we create for kids, the more we help them find what they want, the more they will change, grow and take responsibility for their own lives.

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About Deborah Carraro