Straight-talking film-maker Michael Moore (pictured) followed Fahrenheit 911 with this thoughtful and cutting appraisal of the American healthcare system.
Moore reserves his sharpest criticism for the American insurance companies, who hold the power of life and death over many US citizens. There are plenty of horror stories backing up Moore's assertion that long-term and emergency medical care are being denied to patients who can't afford it.
Critics have disapproved of the sometimes one-sided views of Moore's previous films, and he appears to have taken note: Sicko aims to tell it like it is, without making the American healthcare system the launch pad for a personal rant. It mostly succeeds.
UK viewers will no doubt baulk at the representation of the NHS as a medical utopia, but when faced with the American lumber worker who was forced to decide which finger to save because he couldn't afford both, most will no doubt say a quiet thank you to Nye Bevan.
Sicko is a Film programme that first aired in 2007 and has been classified a 12 certificate.
