HPU nursing professor Dale Allison lead the student discussion of the spring Viewpoints Film Series presentation of Sicko by filmmaker Michael Moore.

Filmed in 2007, Sicko won the 2008 Academy Award for best documentary. It is an expose of the American health care system, which is run for revenue, and the insurance companies that support it, companies that pay bonuses to employees who are successful in denying coverage or claims.
“ As it stands presently, health care in America is an extremely complex business model. It rewards institutions and physicians for providing less care. The American healh care system in its best image should provide needed care for all its people based on individual needs and regardless of ability to pay.” said HPU Profesor Dale Allison, Ph.D.

Moore documents this by interviewing many insured patients whose hospital bills were not paid due to ambiguous conditions from insurance companies. One man had to make the decision which finger he preferred, the index or middle, when he lost both in a table saw accident. The doctors told him his insurance would only cover reattaching one of them.

Another incident involved a woman who was found unconscious on the pavement after a car accident and had to pay for the ambulance ride to the hospital. Her insurance company claimed the ambulance was not pre-authorized.

“ When a student buys clothing, a car, or house, the consumer is aware the cost before the item is purchased. Generally this is not so in health care, the insurance card is accepted and billed by the hospital or clinic or physician’s office. Even if the claim may be valid, the insurance company may reject payment, and the bill may have to be resubmitted. Billing for health care is complex and a specialty in its own right. It is not always clear what will and will not be covered.” explained Allison.
One might wonder, how did our health care system get this bad? Moore addresses this question with the uncompromising determination of a bounty hunter, and he goes after several Republican administrations. Richard Nixon helped pass a costly prescription-drug bill at the decree of an industry lobbyist, Moore says, and George W. Bush signed a large giveaway to the insurance companies to protect them from clients with health problems by allowing them to deny coverage.

Moore then travels to France, England, Cuba, and Canada. All of these countries boast universal health care and have a longer life expectancy and lower infant mortality than the United States. In England we see hospitals that actually reimburse patients salaries at the cashier’s desks for their time away from work. And in Cuba, prescription drugs that cost $120 dollars in the United States are sold for 5 cents.

Viewers might be left feeling a little angry after watching Sicko. Audiences might even feel as though they have been duped by a government that, while it was founded on essential and mandated principles of freedom and equality, has degenerated into support of corporate greed. Moore demonstrates clearly that, in the current American health care system, no citizen is truly free or equal.
For more information on America’s health care, visit www.michaelmoore.com or www.imdb.com.