I went to see Sicko,Michael Moore's documentary film about the health care industry in the U.S., this past Friday with the Cute Little Red-Headed Girlfriend. Go see it: the movie is every bit as good as the critics say it is. It's opening tonight in 100 more movie theaters, and Friday in another 200, so if it wasn't showing near you last weekend it may be by this weekend.

I was very impressed with the way Moore built his argument in Sicko. The movie encompassed so many varied emotions and ideas. The film's even structure and the depth of meaning Moore was able to bring to the subject brought to my mind the satisfaction one feels reading a beautiful, well-written essay. Of course, it was funny, too, but amusement is not the main feeling one takes away from this film.

I had trouble figuring out what I wanted to say here about healthcare. I have an extraordinary number of hair-raising personal healthcare stories I could tell you. I thought about sharing tips on how I've reduced my own out-of-pocket healthcare costs in the last year. I considered sharing various alarming facts about the number of uninsured in Los Angeles, where I live.

In the end, these anecdotes, instructions and statistics all seemed too small to pair with a movie as ambitious as Sicko. The problems with the U.S. healthcare system are enormous, but Moore's film isn't content to just look at what's wrong with our healthcare system. Sicko addresses what it feels like to live in a country that is relentlessly driven by the desire for profit.

Over the course of the Bush administration, I have noticed a change in many of the ordinary business relationships I have with companies I do business with, whether it's the bank, the grocer, an insurance company or even an employer. These are no longer relationships between customers and service providers, defined by a measure of good will and a presumed desire for mutual benefit.

There is a new rapaciousness that has turned each business transaction into an opportunity for profit on the one hand, loss on the other. The new terms and charges that go along with this trend include re-stocking fees, trick credit card fees, restrictive EULAs, and most recently, Supreme Court approved price-fixing. The healthcare equivalents include disputing of routine claims, lagging insurance payments and rising co-pays.

We need to insist on broad changes in our culture, and not settle for whatever healthcare reform or business reform gets pushed forward by the very industries that need changing. If Sicko is a success, inevitably the healthcare and pharmaceuticals industries will be first out of the gate with their prosposals for how to make things "better." That's when we will all need to keep our eye on the prize--and that prize is universal healthcare.