Issues with "Sicko"

As many of you know Michael Moore has a new "documentary" coming out. Clips and trailers have been popping up on myspace and other well travelled sites, attempting to persuade you to give Mr. Moore your money and your time. While watching one such clip on myspace I was compelled to do some research into what Michael said in the opening of the clip in question. Before I embark on the discussion that is to be the basis of this post I wish to say that i do not dislike Michael Moore nor am I terribly fond of him. I respect the message that he is trying to convey and for the most part I agree with the message. My issue with Mr. Moore is simply this, he likes to portray his opinion as fact. This is dangerous; by creative editing he juxtaposes images and situations that have little if anything to do with each other. A prime example of this would be in the film "Bowling for Columbine" when he claimed that Charlton Heston gave a speech roughly two months after the Columbine massacre that said something along the lines of "you'll have to pry it out of my cold dead hands,” it being here a gun. In actuality this speech was given before the Columbine massacre. (A note for all posts that include anything to be represented as fact by me. I will provide sources for any information I represent as fact either at the end of the post or in a parenthetical aside directly after that which I am representing as fact. If no cite is provided and you want one feel free to request one and I will probably - if I have time oblige and provide one).

Now we get to the crux of the matter. This post is going to discuss the opening sentence of the clip that is being played on myspace. The opening sentence of this clip reads as follows: "We've got the worst infant mortality rate (IMR) in the Western World. A baby born in El Salvador has a better chance of surviving than a baby born in Detroit." (if you would like to see the clip here it is. See I do like Michael, I just gave him a plug). If we investigate this statement further we find that in fact he is actually quite mistaken.

Upon hearing this statement I said to myself "surely this can't be true. The worst infant mortality rate in the Western World? He's making this up." So, since I have too much time and no life, I decided to do some digging and investigate this statement with all material available to me. I started my investigation by googleing "Infant Mortality Rates." When the search results came up one of the first sites was the wikipedia entry (go ahead and google it I'll wait...). Normally I would be hesitant to use an entry on wiki but I used it as a starting point so I got no information from it just links. I also clicked on the very first site from "geography IQ." This site provided me with information from the CIA - World Fact Book. I know some of you are saying: "the CIA, are you serious? They are not exactly the most accurate "intelligence" agency in the world." Well that may be true but for this the information has been verified from other places. When we examine the question at hand with the numbers from the CIA - Fact Book we see that a child born in the US has a better chance of surviving in the US than that same child born in El Salvador. According to the CIA numbers the infant mortality rate for the United States is 6.37/1000. That is for every 1000 live births in the United States 6.37 babies die. The number as reported for El Salvador happens to be 22.88/1000. I know, wow, that's not even close. These numbers even say we have a lower IMR than most countries like Russia, Poland, Israel, Mexico, and Croatia. When you compare us to other members of the G8 we do have the lowest IMR of any country other than Russia. However for the most part the differences here are minimal, within 2-3 deaths less/1000. However if we are going to stick to what Mr. Moore said than we should discuss how we compare to the Western World. Well in response to that we have as good if not a better IMR than many "Western" countries (see Russia, Poland, Israel, Mexico, and Croatia).

Shall we look further? Shall we examine the mortality rate of children under 5? Let's examine that question, since Mr. Moore alludes to it in his clip. The U5MR (Under 5 Mortality Rate) for the United States according to UNICEF is 7 whereas for El Salvador it is 27. I'm going to say that again because it bears repeating. The U5MR for the United States according to UNICEF is 7 whereas for El Salvador it is 27. Again these numbers are deaths per 1000 live births. The UNICEF table is put together differently than the CIA one. The UNICEF table lists countries from highest to lowest mortality rate whereas the CIA table goes from lowest to highest. If you wish to compare us to other "western" countries we have a better U5MR than Russia, Mexico, and El Salvador; the same U5MR as Poland and Croatia; and a lower U5MR by one than Canada (6), the United Kingdom (6), and Israel (6).

When dealing with the second part of this claim, "A baby born in El Salvador has a better chance of surviving than a baby born in Detroit," we must examine the IMR for the entire country of El Salvador and for the city of Detroit, Michigan. Finding the information for Detroit is a little more difficult than finding the same info for El Salvador. I suggest googleing "Detroit Infant Mortality Rate." When we do this we see that the IMR for Detroit, home of the Tigers and Lions, is still lower than that of El Salvador, 15.4/1000 for the period 2000-2004 and 22.88/1000 respectively. That's about 7 deaths less for Detroit, this is not a small number granted it's not as bad as it could have been. Does the fact that the IMR of Detroit and other cities is significantly higher than the nation average say something about the state of the nation? I would say unequivicably, yes it does. It says a lot. I think it points to a racial and ethnic divide in the country but that's my opinion and probably is wrong, I don't know.

With all this having been said I believe that what Mr. Moore is trying to do with this film is illustrate how wrong it is that our healthcare industry is so bad compared to other G8 nations. This is something that needs to change. Hopefully this will change after the '08 elections, but I seriously doubt that. Mr. Moore is right when he implies that the government and businesses want an uneducated, ill informed, and blissfully ignorant consumer public. However, he fails to mention that he is banking on these same characteristics so that people buy his argument. If his public were cynical enough or just curious they could find contradicting information. Is this opening statement true? NO! But, I do not think it was intended to be entirely true. I believe it to be a hyperbole.

Will I go see this movie? Not at all. Do I agree with the overall point that I believe he is trying to make? Yes, I do. That point is that Health Care in this country needs to get better and quickly. Is this a new idea? Not at all. The sad thing is that he could be just as entertaining and say just as much to the general public if he kept his shtick to a minimum and instead of pointing out the problem pointed to some sort of solution. Or if he has no solution then he could try and further the debate over nationalizing Health Care. I think it's safe to say that the only thing that he is going to do with this film is piss a bunch of people off. That is after he acts like a fat, rude, pompous a-hole.

You should all go see his movie or go back and watch his other movies and see if what he represents as fact is actually fact.


sources for all IMR and U5MR information:
CIA - The World Factbook
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html
U5MR from Childinfo.org
http://www.childinfo.org/areas/childmortality/u5data.php.
U5MR from Unicef.org
http://www.unicef.org/sowc07/docs/sowc07_u5mr.pdf.