Health Insurances

Sicko is a documentary film by director Michael Moore, released in the United States and Canada on June 22, 2007. The film investigates the American for-profit health insurance and pharmaceutical industries, comparing them with the publicly-funded health care systems in other countries. Sicko criticizes the American health care system on the grounds that the United States is the only industrialized nation that does not offer free, basic health care to all of its citizens. The American system, which the film portrays as maximizing profit at the expense of patient care, is contrasted with the universal health care systems of Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and Cuba.

Although Sicko received positive reviews and Moore was hailed as an auteur, the film's exposé of the problems in the American health care system generated criticism and controversy during its release.

The movie has received a 91% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and was rated 8.5/10 by votes on IMDB . Following early viewings at the Cannes Film Festival, Variety described Sicko as "an affecting and entertaining dissection of the American health care industry", concluding it should play well internationally. Moore has nonetheless been quoted as saying, "I know the storm awaits me back in the United States."

In an early review a week before the premiere, Richard Roeper and Michael Phillips (the latter filling in for Roger Ebert) gave Moore's film two thumbs up. Roger Friedman of Fox News called the film a "brilliant and uplifting new documentary" and praised Moore for the way in which he lets "very articulate average Americans tell their personal horror stories at the hands of insurance companies" and "criticizes both Democrats and Republicans for their inaction and in some cases their willingness to be bribed by pharmaceutical companies and insurance carriers."

British film magazine Empire commented that "Sicko is the film that truly reveals Moore as an auteur."