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A former insurance worker admits that her career advanced further based on the number of people for whom she refused care. "You didn't fall through the cracks," another says. "Somebody made the crack and swept you toward it."

A British couple with their newborn child

The pharmaceutical companies fare little better. Moore argues they jack up the prices of their drugs, making them next to impossible to afford for those who need them the most.

We live in the richest country on Earth, Moore states, so why don't we offer free, universal healthcare to those most in need? Other, poorer countries manage universal healthcare and do so spectacularly. An exercise in compare and contrast, Sicko leaves America behind for almost half its running time, traveling to Canada, Great Britain, France and even Cuba to examine how they take care of their sick. At each location, Moore visits with expatriates who offer him uniquely duel-sided views of the debate. One by one, he vanquishes the conservative myths that claim socialized medicine is destroying those countries that have adopted it. And with each visit, his premise that universal healthcare is doable is strengthened.

The truth is, socialized organizations are not alien to Americans at all, and far from the Red menace alarmists would like us to believe. Everything from our police and fire departments, public school, libraries and postal service are all managed by the government on a not-for-profit basis. Why should medicine be any different?

Like him or not Moore is gifted at mingling with regular folks and showing a caring side

Despite the accusations of manipulation, condescension and playing fast and loose with the truth, Moore's brand of commentary is difficult to resist. Doubtless, there will be those who can find the holes in his arguments and point out the film's glaring oversights. And almost certainly they would be right to do so. Moore is decidedly uninterested in showing both sides of the story. His is a polemic world of diatribes and invectives. And though it might have been nice if, during the two-hour running time, he had taken a moment to suggest what universal healthcare might cost the American taxpayer, it is enough, I suppose, to simply start the conversation.

While Sicko includes facts, statistics and graphs, it's ultimately much more interested in how this drama plays out on a human level. The question is not why this utopia does not exist, but why we don't even care to try to make it so. For Moore, it is not about politics; it is about morality. Profit, he argues, should never enter into the equation where a person's health is concerned.

It has been said that a country can be judged by how well it treats its poorest citizens. If that is true, America is in dire straits. Sicko is a David versus Goliath story, and anyone who doesn't hear its clarion call to revolution isn't paying attention.

I think we can all, on some level, understand Moore's righteously inspired indignation, even if we can't always identify with its objective. I think we can all understand the sort of passion that comes from spending time amidst the holy and coming away changed, hearts broken by the things that break the heart of God and emboldened to take on a vast and wicked system that works as a cancer within creation.

Whatever else you want to say about him, Michael Moore seems to genuinely care about the people he includes in his films. He is consistently the champion of the underdog, the helpless, the powerless, and the marginalized. It is a calling that we should all recognize. Christ's command to love and care for "the least of these" will continue to echo in your head long after Sicko has ended.

Talk About It

1. Do Michael Moore's methods turn you off to his message?
2. Political conservatives—of which most Christians claim to be a part—decry the idea of universal healthcare. But as Christians, should we do everything in our power to ensure every creation of God is loved and cared for, even if it doesn't line up perfectly with our ideology? Why or why not?

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