Illness, Here Is Thy Sting: A review of ‘Sicko’

Larry and Donna Smith had it good. He worked as an engineer, she as a newspaper editor. They had a happy family and their health—the middle-class American dream. Then Donna was diagnosed with cancer; and Larry had a heart attack, and then another, and another. And the real nightmare began. Although both had health care coverage through their employers, that insurance did not cover all their medical bills. To pay their debts they had to sell their home. Now in their mid-50s, Larry and Donna live in their daughter’s spare bedroom, with the boxed-up remnants of their former life crammed between their daughter’s computer table and the double bed.

So begins Michael Moore’s newest documentary, “Sicko” (re-leased on DVD this week), which confirms our worst fears about the American health care system. Health care for many of the insured in the United States is like living on a flood plain:not too bad as long as it doesn’t rain much. But God help you if it does.

In “This article appears in November 5 2007.