Sicko is the latest documentary from Michael Moore. This time, the outspoken film maker takes aim at the American health care system.

Throughout the film, Moore interviews a select group of Americans and documents their nightmarish encounters with this country's sometimes horrendously unaccommodating health care system. Moore then juxtaposes these stories with the tales of foreign citizens with similar medical problems chronicling how their crises are addressed by contrast to the U.S. He not only interviews those in need of service, but the the medical professionals and employees of various health care providers as well.

Now obviously, not everyone in America has been burned by the health care system. Many of us pay our premiums and end up getting the care we've paid so dearly to qualify for. Before I go any further I should share a dramatic experience my wife and I had with the American health care system. Our daughter was born at twenty-two weeks. She nearly died. Suffice it to say, it was a very scary time for us, and what the ordeal was going to cost us was the least of our concern at the time. Thankfully, our story had a happy ending (unless you take into consideration that we can't get our daughter insured because she has Cerebral Palsy). McKenzie just turned nine. She's a happy, playful youngster. As for medical bills? I won't go into numbers here, but the final tally was astronomical. What we actually had to pay was an enormous sum, but when stacked up against what the cost would have been had we not had insurance? Let's just say we were extremely fortunate.

So, even though I don't share the same horror stories as the folks chronicled in Sicko, I still sympathized with them, and it is a severe lack of sympathy and compassion that lay at the core of Moore's indictment of health care in the U.S. As I watched Sicko, I found myself extremely affected. Even though I was more fortunate in my situation, my heart went out to these people. It just as easily could have been me in their shoes. Sadly, in this country it's more about "me" than "we" and that's the sad reality that has caused the U.S health care system to be ranked 37th in the world.

During much of the film, Moore travels to places like Great Britain and Canada to discover that not only are their health care systems designed to offer its citizens the care they need at virtually zero cost, but that the average life expectancy in these countries is considerably higher.

Naturally, Moore's goal here is to make our system look like complete and utter crap and to make the foreign health care policies look flawless. And certainly, there were several times during Sicko when I felt like some of these foreign policies were too good to be true. Realistically speaking, it's safe to say that not all Americans who seek medical aid get the runaround and the shaft, just as I'm certain that not all Canadians get perfect medical care every time out. Furthermore, Moore does skips over interesting tidbits I really wanted to know about (I'm wondering how heavily residents of Great Britain and Canada are taxed for their amazing health coverage). Ultimately, Sicko was designed to show the flaws in the system. It was also designed to show what the American Health care system really is; a money making operation out of control.

In one of the film's more touching scenes, Moore takes a group of sick Americans to a Cuban hospital in hopes that they might offer the aid that American health care is flat out denying. With no questions asked, this hospital takes these folks in. Now quite obviously, Michael Moore is a master manipulator and his mere presence is enough to prompt some folks to go out of their way to be friendly and accommodating, in sheer fear that if they don't, Moore could crucify them for people to see the world over. Still, the heart of this film remains sincere. Yes, there are plenty of folks in this country who haven't been burned by the system, but there's an alarming percentage of Americans who have been neglected, because many of these health care agencies are more interested in generating revenue than providing actual care. Furthermore, what about the number of folks in the states who can't even afford health care. They live in fear every day. Why has this happened in one of the greatest and wealthiest countries on the planet? Moore has his opinion on the matter, but for the most part, he simply shows things as they are. Sicko, as is the case with most of Moore's work, is his way of starting a dialogue so that we can, ultimately, better the situation.

This is an undeniably effective film and it is absent the flat out hatefulness of Moore's wildly popular (and wildly overrated) Fahrenheit 911. While Sicko is a depressing movie, it isn't without a fair share of humor (watch as blowhard Michael Moore whips out a megaphone and pleads with Guantanamo Bay prison guards to let him bring his sick American friends onto prison grounds so that they might receive the same free, high quality medical attention the terrorist prisoners are getting. Or witness Moore's reaction when he discovers the founder of a popular anti Michael Moore web site is forced to shut down the page because his wife becomes ill and he is unable to afford the medical bills).

These are vintage Michael Moore moments and why he is still percieved by most as a champion of the little guy. What is missing in this movie, refreshingly so, are scenes in which Moore blind sides the opposite point of view under false pretenses (that cheap shot Charleton Heston interview in Bowling For Columbine still makes me feel uneasy). He still finds time to make fun of the president and goes on his usual rants, but for the most part, Sicko is about people and their stories, and while we may not all share the same story, we should still show a little compassion. After all, we're all human and all headed for health care.