SiCKO! Paris: Health Care that works

Alex Young

The author appears to support Michael Moore’s opinions on American health care with regards to Parisian health care. In the article, he sites many examples from historic records that match what Moore had stated in his documentary SiCKO. He states that SiCKO is not a new idea or opinion, but a restatement of what has been said in the past by other doctor[s] or social analysts. Moore states in his documentary that in terms of financial and research investment, the U.S. and France are relatively equivalent. However, when it comes to satisfaction of the population in relation to their existing health care system, Paris outranked the U.S. by far. He argued that this proved that the key to a good health care system didn’t exist simply in the investment made, but in the proper structure and deployment of the system. The author then goes on to mention a bit of history about the growths and reforms of health care in France and America. He followed the tale of a student-turned-doctor who went from America to France in order to learn their system. The author cited portions of letters that this doctor sent back to America about his findings about the way that health care was taught in Paris compared to America. Of course, his findings were that There were practices that had existed and were being developed in France that America hadn’t even begun to explore, which allowed for them to move further ahead with a more structured and practical system. Notably, the use of cadavers to learn about origin and residence of disease in patients, as well as learn proper anatomy of the human body. This was something that supposedly wasn’t being studied anywhere else aside from Paris. Among other mentions in the text, the author makes many points that support Moore’s claims in his documentary, that France’s health care system is far ahead of Americas, and that we have much that we can learn from them presently, as well as historically.