Sicko

Sicko (2007) is Michael Moore's documentary, available to watch online on iFILM. Its target is not the uninsured but insured Americans who paid their premiums and were still denied the care they needed.

Moore gathers stories of people left alone with a diagnosis because their insurer combed the fine print for any excuse to say no. Former claims employees sit on camera and describe being rewarded with bonuses for rejecting requests. From there the director travels to Canada, Britain, France and finally Cuba to see foreign public health systems up close and hold them against an American hospital bill. The closing stunt has him ferrying ailing 9/11 rescue volunteers to a place their own government would never have sent them.

This is Moore at his most crowd-pleasing: funny where it stings, shaped as a personal inquiry rather than a dry report. The film was up for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar and pushed the U.S. debate over health reform back into living rooms. It is for anyone who wants to grasp how a system turned sickness into a profit center. Stream Sicko (2007) online on iFILM.