'Sicko' (PG-13)(out of four)

We're being had, my fellow Americans.

That sure seems to be the sentiment of Michael Moore, in his latest, provocative, funny and all around exceptional documentary that was greeted at the Cannes Film Festival not so much with scandal as with nods of the head -- even from the Fox News critic, who hailed it as a "brilliant" example of Moore's "maturity as a filmmaker." And it's difficult as a tax-paying, God-fearing, patriotic citizen not to agree with that assessment .

Something different is afoot with "Sicko," which ranks among the year's best films. It's less polemical than rational, less angry than sad. It cuts across all political, ethnic and racial lines -- and it's also the first Moore film that's not looking for someone to blame.

At once so simple yet so complex -- not to mention devastating -- "Sicko" is about our health care system, about the way our politicians have been bought off by insurance companies and prescription drug companies, firms with a vested interest to maintain control over the medical industry -- and thus their profits.

Quite calmly and collectively, Moore builds up to a simple statement: that we are the last Western country without universal health care. In our system, it's the insurance companies that run the show, that dictate to us whether or not this or that position is warranted, whether or not they will pay a claim. It's a perfect system, out of check and out of balance. When Congress recently passed a prescription reform bill, many Americans wound up paying more for the same drugs.

And that's for the lucky ones who are insured in the first place. These are not so much claims as statements of fact, and Moore's tone here is less attacking than a methodical, step-by-step accounting of the situation. He talks of the modern American way of life, of the way that we now graduate kids from college saddled with $30,000 of debt, how they then must go out and get a job that provides benefits, and how then, in many cases, the providers of those benefits will either not pay for a medical claim, or will require a lengthy bit of deliberation before that person can receive the appropriate treatment.

Moore appears in this film, but not until later on -- the remainder of the time, it's merely him talking to American citizens about their horror stories. He hears about people who were denied treatment, who are now mourning lost loved ones who had a possibility at life, if only their insurance provider hadn't obstructed them.

Then, Moore simply travels abroad. He goes to Canada, Britain and France . Then in Cuba -- in a controversial stunt, with real Sept. 11 first responders who are unable to attain in treatment in America -- Moore shows how the concept of payment, of authorizations, of "in-network" hospitals, are all incomprehensible to the rest of the civilized world.

More important, he documents the overall quality of life in these places, from prescription drugs to preventative medicine, to weeks of medical leave and vacation with no questions asked.

The difference between us, Moore says, is that America is a "me" culture, while there, it's a "we" culture, with the expectations that certain things -- police, garbage removal, medical care -- must be provided to the populace by the government: It's a moral and ethical imperative.

This isn't a film about left vs. right, about politics or agendas; it's about sick people not getting the care they need. Moore has successfully gotten out of the way of this story, and allowed it to come through loud and clear.