There are approximately 50 million Americans with no form of health insurance. And yet, of the 250 million or so that do, many die from illnesses for which treatment is available but which they cannot afford. Insurance companies - being corporations - exist primarily to make profit; that is their essence, regardless of whatever other purpose they serve. Thus, every time they deny a claim, that means business is better. Not surprisingly, these companies oftentimes refuse payment for treatment on questionable grounds, in order to increase their profits, thus leaving some sick people unwell and untreated (sometimes fatally so). Citizens in Canada, England, France and - yes - even Cuba (plus many other countries) have universal access to health care, and the cost of their treatment is largely covered (or reimbursed) by the government. This "socialized" medicine is often not nearly as inefficient, slow or tyrannically run as the American Medical Association would have you believe. Many of these countries' citizens in fact prefer their health care systems to what they know of the United States' system.

That paragraph took me less than two minutes to reread. Let's say it takes you three minutes. Well, then I have just saved you exactly two hours. Maybe you can use it to write your Congressman demanding reform of the American health care system.

Because there is seriously not a single piece of information in this movie that I did not just include above. (Well, except for the fact that detainees at Guantanamo Bay actually receive universal, free health care from the American government. But I think the being detained in a small cell without trial for years on end would actually kind of offset the benefits in that case. Whatever.)

No, I mean seriously - that is literally all that Sicko says. And I keep using the word "seriously" because I seriously can't believe how trivial and superficial this movie is. There's not a single practical solution for change. Spoiler Alert: the conclusion is that we should all be better to one another, and our government should make sure its citizens have access to doctors. Well, I know next to nothing about the way the health care system works (except that I don't have health insurance), but I still didn't learn a single thing in this movie. Not one. So it would be hard to say that this is a very thorough investigation. It's like a Health Care for Dummies, but just the Table of Contents ripped out and read aloud. With crappy editing and corny music. And some seriously stupid gags that do nothing to advance Michael Moore's contention that he's a serious investigative journalist.

I really loved Roger & Me. Bowling for Columbine was pretty interesting. Fahrenheit 9/11 seemed confused and silly to me. Sicko was really amazingly unnecessary. If it gets people talking about health care, great. But based on the information offered up here, how much are they going to have to talk about?