# Explain the plot of Sicko to me **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 12, 2007, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-plot-of-sicko-to-me/411498 "2007-07-12T14:23:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2007, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-plot-of-sicko-to-me/411498/101 "2007-07-13T14:47:27Z")
I sort of wish you had posted that information in this thread, **lanelin** , since it is helpful in assessing the movie. And it confirms my opinion that the Cuba segment undercuts Moore’s overall message. ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2007, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-plot-of-sicko-to-me/411498/102 "2007-07-13T14:49:53Z")
Oh, and I should add that I was also interested to know if people who had seen the movie thought that Michael Moore was successful in his use of the Cuba segment, in terms of the point he was trying to make. I am not trying to argue health care in any way, I was just trying to get opinions on the movie & its impact. I could go see the movie and form my own opinion, but I’m really interested in the opinions of people who are inclined to agree with Moore’s message. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2007, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-plot-of-sicko-to-me/411498/103 "2007-07-13T14:54:50Z")
[QUOTE=Sarahfeena] Oh, and I should add that I was also interested to know if people who had seen the movie thought that Michael Moore was successful in his use of the Cuba segment, in terms of the point he was trying to make. [/QUOTE] It was probably the worst part of the movie. Next to announcing his anonymous 12,000 donation, that is. As I said earlier, Moore is a brilliant filmmaker with little sense of discretion. He ruins his own work. ---
**Author:** ![indierock82](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f14d63/32.png) [@indierock82](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/indierock82)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2007, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-plot-of-sicko-to-me/411498/104 "2007-07-14T10:11:14Z")
[QUOTE=spoke-] If I were a conservative trying to pick apart the film, I would note that in the Cuban hospital one of the 9/11 workers got a free MRI scan. But where was that MRI machine invented? (And _patented_, not insignificantly?) Moore glosses over the fact that some of the nations with socialized care piggy-back the US system by utilizing drugs and treatments developed in the US (by persons with a profit motive). [/QUOTE] If I were being nitpicky, I would ask you where the Gamma Knife machine was invented and patented (?) though it is widely used in hospitals around the US that offer high tech non-invasive neurosurgery. That’s right: Sweden. So is the US piggy backing? ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2007, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-plot-of-sicko-to-me/411498/105 "2007-07-14T14:00:52Z")
[QUOTE=indierock82] If I were being nitpicky, I would ask you where the Gamma Knife machine was invented and patented (?) though it is widely used in hospitals around the US that offer high tech non-invasive neurosurgery. That’s right: Sweden. So is the US piggy backing? [/QUOTE] Depends. Did the inventor(s) make any money by patenting the device in the US? I’m not being snarky. I’m just asking. If drug and treatment research proceed apace in Europe _without the promise of a huge profit in the US market_, then that would be great, and a point in favor of the single-payer system. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2007, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-plot-of-sicko-to-me/411498/106 "2007-07-14T14:47:03Z")
To clarify and expand on my remarks: I concede that new treatments are being developed in Europe (and elsewhere). But those treatments are also being _marketed_ in the US. The gamma knife, for instance is being marketed by [Elekta](http://www.elekta.com/). My concern is that the development of new treatents and medicines (wherever those treatments are invented) is being driven by the potential for huge profit in the US market. If the US goes to a single-payer system, is that going to have a deleterious effect on the pace of medical research? I don’t know the answer. And (once more for the record) I am in favor of the US going to a single-payer universal coverage system. I just think we need to be thoughtful and careful about it, and be wary of unintended consequences. To bring it back around to Cafe Society territory, I think **Sicko** glosses over these issues. Or maybe they didn’t even occur to Michael Moore. ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2007, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-plot-of-sicko-to-me/411498/107 "2007-07-14T17:16:03Z")
[QUOTE=spoke-] To bring it back around to Cafe Society territory, I think **Sicko** glosses over these issues. Or maybe they didn’t even occur to Michael Moore. [/QUOTE] Caveating again that I have not seen the movie, I think that Moore’s general purpose in making these movies is to bring problems to public attention, not necessarily to try to come up with a detailed solution. ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-plot-of-sicko-to-me/411498/108 "2007-07-18T17:37:41Z")
[QUOTE=spoke-] … My concern is that the development of new treatents and medicines (wherever those treatments are invented) is being driven by the potential for huge profit in the US market. If the US goes to a single-payer system, is that going to have a deleterious effect on the pace of medical research? … [/QUOTE] That concerns me sometimes too. But the film gave me some food for thought on that. True, drug companies make a bundle selling drugs to individuals, but they also have a lot of expenditures. Those ads that saturate the TV cost a lot to produce and distribute. Plus, there’s those people in the doctor’s office. The ones that, during the 30-90 minutes I sit in her waiting room, waltz right in to her office with a casual wave to the receptionist. There’s at least two or three for every visit I make. Sometimes they get stacked up in the outer office, and talk amongst themselves about which software their company uses. Those people cost a lot of money too. So as the US moves to some sort of national system, as it will inevitably do, whether years or decades from now, the drug companies will scream about declining profits, but with the savings on all the targeted marketing they do now nad would have to do a hell of a lot less of, plus the fact that they will be able to sell doses to people who were not able to afford them before or whose insurance would not pay, I doubt a single member of big pharma is going to feel a serious pinch. ---
**Author:** ![lalenin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@lalenin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lalenin)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2007, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-plot-of-sicko-to-me/411498/109 "2007-07-21T02:47:17Z")
I ran across[this Reuters article](http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN1936307620070719) on the treatment given in Cuba to Moore’s group. "Moore used Cuba to argue that other countries are providing better health care to its citizens than the United States with far fewer resources, putting the blame on profit-driven U.S. pharmaceutical and medical insurance industries. Communist Cuba’s universal free health system has achieved low child mortality and high longevity rates on a par with rich nations since Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution. But the hospital where SiCKO’s patients were treated is an exception in Cuba, where patients of many other hospitals complain they have to take their own sheets and food. The building with a majestic high-ceiling lobby was meant to be Cuba’s central bank when it was started by U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista. Completed years after Castro’s revolution, it was turned into Cuba’s top hospital. The 750-bed Hermanos Almejeiras is Cuba’s main hospital for heart and liver transplants with a staff of 500 doctors and 800 nurses." [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-plot-of-sicko-to-me/411498.md?page=5)