Michael: I admire all of your work. Not so much for your film making ability, but from a humanitarian point of view. You are a truth seeker who has the guts to take on dangerous issues. The world needs many more like you. Generally speaking, the world is a corrupt place and it has become a real mess. Distribution of wealth is at the heart of the issue. Wealth has always been a battle between those who have it and those who don't. America once use to have people frienly programs for its citizens. But,it's quest to be the supreme world power has caused it to sell its citizens short and take a huge share of its economy to feed its military complex. The health care issue is only the tip of the ice berg. Good luck on the film "SICKO". I hope it sparks the needed fire.

I didn't see the film yet but I am part of the problem which Mr.Moore is talking on the movie.

I am shocked that the American people doesn't do anything to fight for their rights.A society without health insurance,without proper education it is not a true democracy.

The Pharmaceutical lobbies who spend millions of dollars in POLITICAL campaigns should be totally RESTRICTED to do so. We know that nothing comes for free.

In America the fourth leading cause of PREVENTABLE deaths is hospital acquired infections. If physicians, caregivers and hospital administrators would put LIVES ahead of PROFITS and take an extra 15 seconds between patient visits to simply wash their hands or be held accountable, countless lives, along with its unnecessary suffering, would be saved.

I believe the true problem in health care lies with the people themselves. People are not physically designed to consume animals or cooked foods. While we do this now and survive, it is with dis-ease and many chronic problems. Eat food meant for your body in its raw state just as all the animals on earth do, and health and longevity will be yours. Go back in time, long before 200 years, and the life span of man was very long. Archmedes lived to be 83, and died only due to being murdered. He was healthy, and still going strong. We eat garbage in America, and want to pop a pill to be well. This is the attitude that will keep us from attaining real health, of body and spirit. Why people feel they have a right to comodify other living animals is truely obscene, and just like slavery. Everyone knows animals experience emotions, we need as people, to find and excercise our hearts, and stop this cruelty for our health and spiritual well being.

I haven't seen SICKO... But whatever negative facts Mr. Moore 'reveals' in the U.S. health system, I would be willing to gamble that it pales in comparison to what the health insurance companies / HMOs are getting away with.

I recently completed a screenplay - DENIALS - based upon real life experiences dealing with 'crimes' many health insurance companies are getting away with. DENIALS may not be as scandalous as some probable forthcoming ENRON epic. It may not even be as dramatic as a sexy female law clerk/secretary discovering how a small town in southern California has its

water supply polluted by an electrical power company. (Erin Brokovich) But then again—since DENIALS involves more ‘misplaced’ money (in the billions) than both of the aforementioned stories combined—it might just be as dramatic and scandalous.

P.S. In case you wonder… That’s billions each year; year in year out !

I was one of the founders and first president of a corporation responsible

for working with hospitals in central TX and recovering tens of millions

of dollars from health insurance companies for and on behalf of hospitals and physicians. In this matter — the story of DENIALS — fact is stranger/more scandalous than fiction.

You would think the Canadian health system was light years ahead but in fact just as far behind as the American system. The backlogs are neverending and if you need something addressed you had better pack your bags, go down to Buffalo and put it on your Visa. Mr. Moore makes movies how he wants to see it, not how we see things in Canada with our broken health system.

I'd rather wait in a long line for great health care than dumped in an alley wearing only my hospital gown, or even sent home to die because my illness isn't covered by my insurance.

I agree that reforming our health delivery system is long overdue and that bringing an end to health insurance company abuses is the place to start. The alternative to what we have now is universal health insurance, but it need not resemble the dysfunctional systems in Canada and England. If we simply require all citizens to carry health insurance and subject the carriers to regulations which limit what they can charge for premiums or pay their executives, we can easily solve this problem. Look at France or Germany to see how it's done.

I've been fighting cancer for over 3 years now and I do have health insurance, and I must say that I'm so glad that someone like Moore is making the public aware of everything that's going on-whether I agree with him on all the issues or not, at least his trying to make a difference and have an impact, I still tell people that only reason I'm still alive today is because I had a great nest egg which I was bale to use when the insurance company didn't cover certain things. And when I was first diagnose the insurance company tried everything to get me out of their system and even stop paying for my medicine until they did an investigation which took 8 months, I really felt so sorry for those that didn't have the money to survive through that stressful delay from the insurance companies. I really just hope that people stop focusing on Moore and focus more on a real problem here and somethings comes out it. I'm sick and tired of watching lower and middle class not get proper care

thanks for reading this

My wife and I are both cancer survivors, neither one of us had any trouble getting the right treatment, I don't know how we could have had better care anywhere in the world.

I had two friends with lymphoma, one in England and one in the US. The one in England died the one in the US survived.

There are plenty of horror stories related to the NHS in the UK.

Like pharma companies and the insurance industry, Mr Moore has his own agenda too. He believes that healthcare is a right for all under all circumstances. Really Mr Moore? Even to those that treat their body like a trash can and take NO responsiblity for the babies they make or the crimes they commit?

Nothing this complicated has a simple answer. I do applaud his willingness to more openly discuss the 'cons' of having a profitable healthcare system. However, Mr Moore and the American public have to be very careful for what they wish for. When you take away a large % of $ profit from pharmadrug companies you cut the ability to do research and development, white and blue collar jobs go in the can, and communities like Ann Arbor/Kalamazoo Mich. get faced with huge economic loses by losing a tax base.

PLEASE stop thinking that socialized medicine is 'all we need' to fix this. A middle of the road approach is best in most of what we do yet all we do is argue to one extreme or the other.

*ugh* Enough already!

I an glad to see that Mr. Moore has applied his considerable skills to address the health care system in the USA. It is a mess, fraught with graft and corruption, closed doors to those who need coverage and a grab bag of riches for insurance, drug and related companies, hospitals and last but not least, physicians. It is time for change.

I can't believe that you believe it's that easy. Geeeee, let's think on this a "second" (which is all it deserves. Healthcare is the problem yeah right. Maybe if LAWYERS, you know those guys in Washington supposedly running everything, didn't sue DOCTORS at the drop of a hat, then the doctors in turn have to have malpactrice insurance because of these so called LAWYERS, then the cost of practicing good medical care wouldn't continually go up. It's easy to sit back and blame pharma co.s but let's also remember that most of the Powers that Be have LAW degrees.

As a future physician, my hope is that we are able to have socialized medicine in the US. I am tired of hearing my friends who are physicians tell me there horror stories about not having the freedom to treat patients in an effective manner. Many of them tell about how 70 to 90 percent of their time is spent documenting and not treating. Socialized medicine will mean that forms will be consistent and eventually as documentation is ironed out, less ambiguous. As a government employee, it would be very difficult for someone to launch a ridiculous lawsuit. If we do not have socialized medicine, I can see the writing on the wall: Much less pay for practitioners, much more frustrating administrative like labor, and an inconsistent maze to navigate with insurance companies. Do you really think that insurance executives or hospital administrators will be the ones to take the hit if things continue the way they are? No! This leaves only the labor to take pay cuts and have to jump through unreasonable hoops for the oligarchy. If I’m going to take a pay hit, at least I would like a better bureaucracy to give all my devotion.

People say negative things about government control all the time when talking about entities like the post office. They say things like: If only it was privatized, things would perform better. No way! If the US Postal Service were privatized, first class letters would cost $2 each to help pay hundreds of millions of dollars for CEO’s to change hands every 2 to 5 years. They would save costs by having fewer delivery cycles. Who knows what other cockamamie ideas they would also inflict on the public.

Many people complain about Michael Moore’s style and how he is laughing it off to the bank. What do you think multi-millionaires who are getting richer because of our current condition like George Bush and Dick Cheney are doing right now? Moore is just beating these charlatans at their own game.

Funnier still are people who come up with anecdotal tales that say: I know someone in the US who lived and someone in the UK who died. The statistics to do not support the tripe you are spewing. If people would actually read for a change, they would know that things are getting much worse in the US (and not just read corporate dominated media). As Gore Vidal says in the forward of “America First!”, we are becoming more like Brazil. I like to call it the Brazilification of America. Yes, the elite like to say that the average wage is increasing, but of course it is: CEO’s and other senior management are getting much more pay and throwing the statistics higher. Fact--The median wage in the US is going down. The constant catering to the pharmaceutical companies and the insurance industry will continue trends like this and will be the death of us all.

I want to thank Michael Moore for taking the responsibility to bring these issues into the light. On a more personal note, I am grateful that he brought some very deserving American citizens to get the treatments that they deserve. If the US will not provide them with the care they need, what are they to do? Citizens, like myself, who provided service to our country when it was in need, and now that we are in need, there is a dial tone at the other end. Many of you probably do not know that there were 5000 people at a national EMS conference in New Orleans that ended less than 24 hours before the mayor declared a mandatory evacuation of the city due to impending hurricane Katrina. I was one of those people. The other thing you may not know is that out of all those people, the only paramedics that showed up at the Superdome to help were myself (upstate NY)and three others from Ohio. There were less people than you can count on two hands helping the almost 30,000 people there with their medical needs in the first aid station before, during and a few short days following the hurricane. How does this relate? I was unable to return to work, I am on Social Security Disability AND I have NO healthcare. Do you realize that you have to be disabled for 2 1/2 years before Social Security Disability will give you Medicare? Does that seem reasonable folks? If you have a disability, you obviously need healthcare, but guess what? Sorry! Nope! Nada! So a handful of us along with many who served their country during 9/11 are injured and without the healthcare they desperately need. Wow! Thank you Michael Moore!

I am curious to see if Moore examines the effects of tort lawyers on the health insurance/malpractice system. How many

unneccessary tests are ordered (wasting how much time and how much $$) so these doctors can CYA? Of the doctors that have posted on this board....how many of you make decisions based on how this decision would appear, if you were on the witness stand?

I don't disagree that there are problems with the current system. Unforunately, I don't expect Moore to examine all sides..just the sides that help rally his followers.

Michael Moore is point on. I've only seen the trailer but I can't wait to see the film in its entirety. This system is the worst...the worst. Why should health insurance be tied to employment? Kids graduate from college and BOOM! uninsured. God forbid they should get sick and what if they have the misfotune to have asthma or diabetes? No insurer will cover pre-existing conditions, so the ones who need the insurance the most can't even qualify.

Thank you Michael Moore for even going there,

at least you have tried to bring the necessary attention to an urgent issue. Your detractors

wouldnt lift a finger to help but are quick to

complain and criticize.\

It is a pity that most americans do not want to hear/see the truth, perferring to keep our heads in the sand. We criticize the french for being soft but their government has a very healthy respect for them, can we say the same. I saw the mivie 7/1/07 it is excellant, if you are going to see only one movie this year this is the one. GREAT JOB!!

I thought "Sicko" was Moore's autobiography. It's just unbelievable that anyone listens to this discredited idiot. You think you have healthcare problems now. At least, within a competitive system, there are options to change. When the Feds control it all, that is the only option. When you have a health complaint, you can write your congressman. Name one program that Feds do competently. You want to give them your healthcare? Cuba? There is a great model. Moore should do a movie about how well Cuba feeds their people. Food supply is a bit more basic than healthcare.