Sucking chest wound? No - that's the HMOs sucking...

I realize that a film by Michael Moore is going to be biased to the extreme, but I still wanted to see his slant on the US health care system in his latest - Sicko.

He did a predictably splendid job of making the US system look really bad, especially the HMOs. But then he went on a voyage around the world looking at other health systems. He started with Canada's and it instantly looked better - no surprise there. Then he went to the UK. I had no idea how their system worked, so I was pleasantly surprised at how it seemed even better than ours. I was especially impressed with the fact that UK doctors get a bonus if they can demonstrate that their patients are getting healthier. What a concept.

But France's system really blew me away. They seem to go out of their way to try to raise their population's health and well being. 5+ weeks of paid vacation a year, helpers coming into the home to help with baby, doctors who make house calls 24 hours a day. The poor Americans living in France who were interviewed didn't know what hit them. They felt guilty accepting the French level of care.

But of course, the piece de resistance was when Mr. Moore took some sick folks to Cuba to get treatment. The idea was to go to Guantanamo Bay, to get the same level of treatment as the 'enemy combatants', but they ended up in Havana. Michael did the impossible in one fell swoop - he made the US's 'enemies' look like saints while making the American system look completely heartless and dysfunctional.

It was a remarkable film and I've gone out of my way to lend it out to friends so they could see it.