The film “Sicko” is in the form of a documentary and has been directed by Michael Moore. The movie focuses on exposing how the Americans have been plagued by the existing health insurance system that is regarded a free-enterprise. Moore purports that most Americans do not have medical insurance and that those who have, they only have the HMO medical cover, which is a controlled medical insurance.

In the documentary, Moore exposes how the health crisis came about, after the HMOs and the drug manufacturers succeeded in persuading the legislators to lessen the restrictions on the HMOs. The lessening of the restrictions enabled the HMOs to operate freely, and, according to Moore, this might be the main contributor to the current health crisis. In order to demonstrate the crisis, Moore takes the audience to the lives of people who do not have insurance, as well as, those who have.

Moore has also managed to disprove the opponents o socialized, government controlled healthcare. As he travels to Canada, the audience appreciates the fewer doctors for the country’s population, and the long lines of healthcare. He also travels to Europe and manages to disprove the notion that universal healthcare leads to high taxes. He also makes a trip to Cuba, where one of his victims realizes she can purchase an inhaler medicine very cheaply. The audience gets the effect of the agenda setting theory (McCombs, 2002), which expounds on the role of the media in agitating for the public agenda.

In short, Moore succeeds in portraying the dark side of HMOs, and shows concerns of the American people in regard to better health. He displays the effect that politics can have to the health sector, for example, an attempt by Hilary Clinton in 1993 to reform the health sector, which was politically thwarted. The elements of persuasion and theories used in the movie are enough to convince the audience on the evils of HMOs.

Reference

Reynolds, A., & McCombs, M. (2002). “News influence on our pictures of the world”. In D. Zillmann, J. Bryant. (Eds). Media effects: advances in theory and research (2^nd ed). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers