Sicko
Michael Moore's fifth feature length Documentary film Sicko places the American health care system and pharmaceutical industry under the microscope for a typically humorous yet hard-hitting examination.
The film opens with the stories of several U.S. citizens whose lives have been changed significantly because of either their inability to pay health care premiums or becoming entwined in seemingly endless bureaucracy.
Moore investigates the history of the U.S. health care system and then compares it with that of The United Kingdom, Canada and Cuba. He takes several 9-11 rescue workers to an unlikely location to receive the health care that they were denied or unable to afford in their home country.
Fast Facts
- Release Date: June 29, 2007
- Duration: 123 minutes
- Premiered at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, where it received a 15-minute standing ovation
- Nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 2007 Academy Award
- Budget: $9 million
- Box office gross: $24.5 million
Quote
"I heard that the man who runs the biggest anti-Michael Moore website was going to have to shut it down. He could no longer afford to keep it up because his wife was ill and he couldn't afford to pay for her health insurance. He was faced with a choice of either keep attacking me or pay for his wife's health. Fortunately, he chose his wife. But something seemed wrong about being forced into such a decision. Why, in a free country, shouldn't he be able to have health insurance and exercise his First Amendment right to run me into the ground? So I wrote him a check for the 12,000 dollars he needed to keep his wife insured and in treatment, and sent it to him anonymously. His wife got better and his website is still going strong."
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