John Brown
Fullmer
English 101
21 November 2014
Sicko Analysis
In the documentary Sicko, Michael Moore exposes the dysfunctional North American healthcare system. His documentary focuses on the corruption, the political agenda, and comparing the American healthcare systems compared to others. Moore informs American audiences of the true motives behind the billion dollar industry that is the health care system.
The main point that Michael Moore is portraying in his documentary is that the North American health care system does not have the best interest for it's customers in mind. Throughout the documentary, Moore gives numerous examples of insured patients being denied a multitude of treatments from their insurance companies. They are denied because of the amount their treatments would cost the insurance company. These thousands of Americans pay monthly for their health insurance so that they will be covered in instances like these. Health insurance companies, such as Kaiser, refuse to pay for treatments (for their paying customers) if they deem the cost of the treatment too hefty.
Moore's point of his documentary is to draw attention the corruption of the health care companies in North America.
The corruption of the health insurance companies go beyond the denial of treatment for its patients. Moore builds a strong argument for the healthcare systems of other nations such as Canada, and France. He builds a very convincing argument, however; Moore plays on the emotions and uses pathos to strengthen his arguments rather than reason. Many of the examples that Moore uses in his documentary are very dire cases of helpless families that are refused treatments from their health care providers. Instead of choosing examples that the average Americans may face, Moore uses extreme cases to play on the emotions of his audience to more effectively get his point across. He...