Documentary Analysis: Sicko Michael Moore

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Universal healthcare: a term feared by many politicians due to the communist connotation, but is it really all that bad? Over 58 countries have some sort of universal health coverage, such as England and France which have single payer healthcare meaning the government provides insurance for all citizens and pays for all healthcare expenses. The United States of America has insurance mandated healthcare meaning the government requires all citizens to purchase insurance, usually provided through their jobs. In America, over 45 million people are uninsured, 20,000 of which will die by the end of the year compared to England or Frances were all residents, legal or not, are covered. In the documentary sicko Michael Moore shines light on the corruption To begin his juxtaposition he brought up the neighbors to the north, Canada, and how americans will pretend to live with a friend or family member who is a canadian citizen so they can get the treatment they need. He also brings up 18 month old Mychelle who was suffering from a 104 fever and was taken to the nearest hospital, where they refused to help her because they didn’t take her insurance. They rushed her to the nearest hospital that would treat her , but by the time the ambulance arrived Mychelle suffered a cardiac arrest and passed away. After tugging at our heart strings he introduces us to ZoÃ, who like Mychelle came down with a high fever and was rushed to the hospital where they immediately treated her, discovered she had a throat infection and finally gave her medication at no expense. The one difference between these two 18-month year old girls? Zoà and her mom live in France, a country with universal healthcare.Moore also anticipated objections, like the idea that people in America won’t want to be doctors because they would work for the government and it would pay less. Which Moore rebuttals with a statement from a Doctor from France who lives comfortably in a 3 story house with a beanz making over $204,351 a year.Here hes trying to prove that just becuase they work for the goveremnt doesn’t mean they won’t be paed Moore does overuse his pathos in a sense with his over dramatic music and sound effects. When the American man broke his arm in the very low quality footage the crunch of the bone was distinct and you were able to tell the audio was either added in or edited to emphasize it. He also shows a scene where children are crying because their father is going to war but it is obvious that they were instructed to over sell the crying. Some may see these stage effects as a way to discredit moore, however, Moore is being burlesque, Burlesque is a device of satire or was to portray satire and a very effective on at that. Another point to make is that Moore recognizes that most Americans understand things at a ninth grade level , so he over dramatizes these things to keep the audience interested and to build an argument that the populous would

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