Last week, against my better judgment, I went to see Michael Moore’s new movie Sicko, about the evils of the American health care system. And to my surprise, I enjoyed it ... I really enjoyed it. Though I make no secret of my dislike for Moore as a human being and as a political commentator, I cannot deny his talent as a filmmaker. And politics aside, Sicko is one hell of a movie — alternately hilarious and heartbreaking — though misleading at times and one-sided throughout.

Sicko introduces us to several Americans whose lives have been shattered by the American health care system. We meet one uninsured man who accidentally sawed off two of his fingers and was told that it would cost him $60,000 to reattach his middle finger and $12,000 to reattach his ring finger (ever the romantic, he chose the latter). We meet a middle-aged middle-class couple who have been forced to move into their daughter’s basement after their respective medical conditions cost them their house and most everything else they had. And, most disturbing of all, we meet several 9/11 volunteers now suffering a variety of worksite-related injuries that they can’t afford to address (Moore takes them on a boat trip to Cuba — with a priceless stop at Guantanamo Bay — and they receive superb free care from the communist country’s national health service.)

Despite what some of Moore’s conservative enemies will have you believe, (almost) everything in Sicko is true. Nearly 50 million Americans are uninsured; millions more are underinsured. Not surprisingly, the most common causes of personal bankruptcy in America are medical. Among industrialized nations, America has nearly the lowest average life expectancy and nearly the highest infant mortality rate. Overall, according to the World Health Organization, American health care ranks 37th in the world (right below Dominica and Costa Rica, right above Slovenia and Cuba.) And for that health care, the U.S. spends far more per capita than any other country. Other developed nations, it seems, spend less on health care yet provide their citizens with more. If it were all up to President Moore — shiver — America would join them by junking our for-profit private system for a universal national health service.

But there are other facts, ones Moore leaves out of Sicko, that reveal a more complex picture.

As CNN reported in its review of the movie, American patients, despite their complaints, are the most satisfied in the world. American doctors, though (in my opinion) undercompensated relative to American lawyers, are still the best paid in the world. And perhaps most notably, the American pharmaceutical industry, much maligned in Sicko, has produced more lifesaving drugs per capita than any other countries’.

Canada, Britain and France — the socialized models that Moore praises — aren’t perfect, either. For one, citizens of those countries endure longer waiting times for most procedures than do Americans. And the “free health care” they get isn’t free at all. It’s paid for out of their taxes, which for that reason, are far more burdensome than Americans’. One might miss that watching Sicko because it’s mentioned only once, in passing, and not by Moore. But it bears repeating because Sicko is an argument not just for free health care, but free everything (free college, free vacation, free day care, etc.) What begins as an indictment of the American health care system devolves into one long ode to socialism and the welfare state.

Socialism, it’s true, has become a dirty word in American politics. Whereas many mainstream left-wing parties in Europe proudly call themselves “Socialist,” Democrats in this country run away from the label (even faster than they do from the word “liberal”) But there’s a reason for that: Capitalism has served America well, and Americans know it. Despite the undeniable inequality in this country, the average American is still better off financially than the average Canadian, the average Brit or the average Frenchman. And we’ve gotten to that point because the profit motive, relatively unhindered in America, has encouraged companies like Pfizer to make the best drugs, companies like Apple to make the best new gadgets and people like Michael Moore to make the best documentaries. The desire for money may be the root of all evil, but it’s also the root of all prosperity.

None of this changes the fact that American health care is in need of serious reform — we need some form of universal health insurance — but it casts doubt on Moore’s big-government solution. There are other ways. Lawmakers in my home state of Massachusetts, under the unlikely leadership of Republican Governor (and now presidential candidate) Mitt Romney, recently passed a market-friendly universal health care plan that makes private health insurance mandatory (like car insurance) for those who can afford it and subsidizes it for those who can’t. Most employers are required to cover their workers or pay into a fund that helps cover the state’s uninsured. Democratic candidates for president, most notably John Edwards, are proposing similar plans on a national scale.

We must help the 1 in 6 Americans who don’t have health insurance, but we can do it without screwing over the 5 out of 6 who do.

Ben Birnbaum is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be contacted at bhb9@c­or­ne­ll.­e­d­u. Infomaniacs Anonymous will appear Tuesdays this semester.