I know that a lot of people run away when they see the name Michael Moore, but I have always found his films to be really interesting. Each focuses on a specific topic from Big Business to the American gun culture. It is pretty clear from the start that he is presenting a certain point of view, but I have always found that a good chunk of what he presents is documented truth. As with everyone, there are sometimes exaggerations or errors, but there are always thought-provoking proposals that will lead to good conversations about important issues.

His newest work focuses on the American health care system, which is run strongly on a business model because of our needs to keep the government out of it. We often hear arguments that most countries with socialized medicine have poor health care systems with major backups. This is in fact, one of the things he takes a look at by visiting and talking with people from Canada, France, Britain, and Cuba. In one of the extras, he also stops in to visit Finland.

In the process, we are presented with a number of stories in which people have suffered more than necessary or died because it would cost the insurance company too much money to help them or the process moved so slowly. We hear those from other companies laughing at his response of awe at the amount of services they get through there nationalized health care systems.

He concludes with one of his typical flashy maneuvers. He learns that the detainees at Guantanamo Bay basically get socialized medicine, and he opts to take a number of people he has interviewed, including 3 peoples who worked at Ground Zero as emergency personnel following 9/11, to Cuba for treatment. They are unable to access the prison facilities, but a local hospital does provide health care, allowing them to get needed tests their insurance companies would not allow for, which results in better diagnoses for the patients, and medicine that will better treat them.

The stories presented throughout the film are touching and moving. In fact, I think "heartbreaking" best describes. I don't believe that anyone wants to deny health care to people, but that is basically what this film is all about.

Profit margins should never be tied to health care.