'Sicko'; Anecdotally Speaking

In Sicko, Michael Moore paints a dismal picture of health care in America. By showcasing individuals who feel they have been failed by the current system, Moore evokes strong – if one-sided - responses from his audience.

I take issue with the film’s notion that lack of insurance coverage equates to lack of health care. Between its portrayal of struggling Americans and its favorable look at the government-run health care systems of France and Cuba, Sicko fails to consider the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), which requires U.S. hospitals and physicians to stabilize and treat all patients—not just those with insurance (see: http://www.emtala.com/faq.htm). EMTALA ensures that even uninsured patients receive the treatment they need in emergency situations.

I worked as an Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Approximately 50 percent of the patients I attended to in the U of A emergency department were uninsured, yet they still received excellent treatment—the same as those with insurance. Moore’s interview with a Canadian ER doctor who when referring to an emergency amputee patient requiring immediate surgery stated, “When Brad came in, we didn't have to worry about whether he had insurance before we could help him" was ludicrous.

I also found fault in Sicko’s portrayal of the government-run health care systems in other countries. Featuring obviously biased supporters of the systems and not mentioning even widely known failures and systemic breakdowns, the film again elicits emotional reactions from its audience without providing the entire picture.

Moore lauded the French universal health care system, seeming to conclude that it is the government’s responsibility to provide not only comprehensive health care, but also, strangely, nanny care and laundry services for new mothers. Moore does not mention that nearly 15,000 people died in that country during the heat wave in the summer of 2003 because of “its inadequate health facilities and lax government response (see: http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/2006/Update56.htm).” Overall, the largely government run medical systems of Europe saw 52,000 of it citizens die during the summer of 2003 due to heat wave-induced inadequate medical treatment.

Michael Moore chose not to highlight Mexico, another country that offers socialized medicine. The reason is obvious: American hospitals treat million of Mexican citizens each year who flee Mexico not necessarily for higher pay and better jobs in the US, but because they simply cannot get good health care in Mexico. As a general and trauma surgeon working in Tucson, AZ, I could not count the number of times that we received a call from a US border town hospital that had a special delivery from Crus Roja (Red Cross in Mexico) that was escorted across the border by US border patrol straight to an American hospital. We never turned these patients away. Rather, we gave them the most advanced, life-saving health care in the world.

For additional reading, I suggest David Gratzer's book, The Cure and Stuart Browning's website, www.freemarketcure.com.