I did not see Sicko, but I have had standard health insurance, HMOs, PPOs, Medicaide, Medicare and military coverage.
I know there can be vast differences state to state even with Medicaide and medicare.
I can say my daughter was found disabled thru social security but when we tried to extend her military coverage due to her being disabled before age 18 we were denied. And she did not automatically get Medicaide, either.
I also know when we have tried to use our Medicaide and medicare here away from a city, in our affluent county, it was not worth the paper it was written on. Technically a public community hospital is not supposed to be able to deny care if you have Medicaide or Medicare, but-----our experience is they will play games with patients and find ways to get rid of them. A couple years ago my husband was on Medicare and wound up in local ER after a motorcycle accident, and they discharged him without doing any XRays, without cleaning any wounds, nothing, and I took him 90 mins away to a VA hospital where he was in ICU for 3 weeks.
I know when I had no insurance, after first qualifying for social security disability and awaiting my 2 years to get my Medicare, I was reduced to no insurance for 2 years and my doctor did NOT treat me properly, and once I got Medicare and found a new doctor, well, had I found this doctor and had coverage he would accept previously, I most likely would not have been bedridden for 2 years.
My son hurt his eye, our local hospital said it was "fine" I brought my son back 3 times...the 3rd time it was a different doctor, who said he wanted an outside consult- so after 5 days, they found his eye had ruptured, and leaked out his vitreous fluid but becuz of how old the injury was by then, it had by then destroyed his eye (scar tissue) Speculation at the university hospital where I then took him was, the docs at first hospital did not bother to LOOK at it properly, due to the Medicaide insurance.
I know my son did not awaken from anesthesia post 9 hour eye surgery, BUT his insurance considered the procedure "day surgery" and nevermind we were 5 hours from home, and he was not awake, the hospital refused to keep him. (We stayed at Ronald McDonald House instead, as I was far too afraid to bring him all the way home- even tho I AM a nurse)
My best friend complained of vision problems and was at the doctor monthly for 2 years before a sub doctor decided to investigate further into her complaint, bypassing her HMO and found her entire eye engulfed in melanoma, requireing the removal of her eye, too late, it had spread to all her vital organs. and she passed away after a gruesome time. And another friend on Medicaide took her 5 yr old to ER 3 times in less than 24 hours where no docs would even examine him (said 5 yr olds get tummy aches to be allowed to not go to school) . She finally drove her son to the city....to an ER there, they found his intestine had twisted, ruptured, he died 18 months later after multiple organ failure due to the stress on his body from the intestine ruptureing.
When I did still work, there was a short time, a period of a couple months where I worked full time but my paychecks went for health insurance entirely. I only got a pay stub on payday becuz the insurance permiums took my entire paycheck.
After I no longer worked, (due to my disability) I looked into getting private health insurance for my family becuz our income was $20 a year too high to qualify at first for Medicaide- but- I was co nsidered "uninsurable" due to RA, Lupus and bipolar, and my oldest child was uninsurable due to bipolar and my son was uninsurable due to seizures, and cp. Noone would sell us health insurance! There was a gov program here in IL for uninsurable persons, but it was going to cost me $600 a month for mine, $500 a month for my dtr and another $500 a month for my son, and I would have to get standard private insurance for my non disabled dtr. Worse, it had high deductibles and high co pays and did not cover very well at all for psychiatric or neuro. (as if I even had the money for one of us to be covered under thhose prices?)