Although he usually induces apoplexy in his opponents, who accuse him of hating America (when they're not suggesting high treason), most of Michael Moore's significant body of work actually performs the basic function of many documentaries, the simple disclosure of facts. Because he reveals information often neglected or ignored by more orthodox media, he annoys all the usual suspects, those frightened folk who attack him on right-wing television shows, hate radio, Fox News, conservative web sites, a variety of crazed blogs, etc. Possibly assisted by all the negative publicity, his movies have earned him both money and acclaim; his appearances in them have made him surely the most recognizable documentary filmmaker in the world.

Most of the Moore haters apparently refuse to watch his movies, but simply condemn them out of hand, thus missing the ironies and absurdities of situations that should inflame the outrage of any objective viewer of any political persuasion. After his controversial autopsy of Bush's invasion of Iraq in "Fahrenheit 9/11," he turns to a quite different subject and employs a somewhat different method in "Sicko," an examination of the problems of health care in America.

Using a considerable amount of archival footage, some judiciously interspersed statistical information, and numerous interviews, Moore traces some of the history behind the present situation. He plays the audio tapes from Richard Nixon's presidency, identifying what seems the actual moment when John Ehrlichmann discussed the concept of the HMO with the president, who expresses his delight in the notion of less medical care for more money, capitalism at its finest. From that discussion, according to Moore, grew the giant corporations like Kaiser Permanente, Humana, Cigna, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and others, turning illness into a cash cow.

He adds the pharmaceutical companies to the list of malefactors, noting particularly the enormous amounts of money they donate to our congressional representatives and the cozy relationships that allow congressmen and their aides to work at highly paid jobs in those companies after they retire from what some people call public service. The pharmaceuticals, for example, employ four lobbyists for each member of Congress, a kind of full-court press that prevents the passage of any significant regulation and guarantees them enormous profits. He shows a rapid montage of the representatives endorsing the Bush drug benefits bill, a sickening display of scripted lines and infuriating smugness.

Moore devotes much of "Sicko" to the stories of a number of people who suffer not only serious illness but unsatisfactory treatment from their health insurance carriers - outrageous charges, denials of payments, refusals to recognize the simple existence of a medical condition. Some of his interviewees declare bankruptcy attempting to deal with a catastrophic illness; some in fact eventually die of a disease their insurance companies believe too expensive to treat; many believe they are punished merely for being sick. Moore demonstrates that the whole concept of insurance - sharing risk among many to lighten the burden of the individual - evaporates under the pressure of profits.

The director travels to other countries to show the advantages of what American demagogues historically refer to as "socialized medicine." Canada, Cuba, Great Britain, and France regard universal health care as a right, and, despite the torrent of untruths from the medical community in America, those countries treat the sick with efficiency, competence, and compassion; our system, on the other hand, places us 37th in the world, just ahead of Bulgaria.

Because he allows the numerous patients, doctors, and other health care professionals to tell their stories, and deftly employs available archival footage, in "Sicko" Moore seems somewhat less intrusive and embarrassing, avoiding the ambush journalism that initially distinguished his work. His commanding a squadron of boats to ferry some patients to Cuba provides the only sequence of his familiar grandstanding. He also benefits from the analysis of Tony Benn, a former British Member of Parliament who recounts the history of the National Health Service and defines the motives and methods of those who maintain the status quo of the American system: keep the poor disenfranchised and hopeless, keep the people afraid of the government, and the companies and their puppet politicians will prevail and prosper, an apt and depressing description of today's reality.

"Sicko," (PG-13) produced, written, and directed by Michael Moore, is now playing at Little Theatres and Pittsford Cinemas.