"This is the most selfish country I've ever seen in my life!" So said one outraged man when the lights came on after a screening of Sicko, Michael Moore's provocative look at the state of health care in America.

Angry? You bet. But what got him going?

It could have been the scene in which a middle-aged husband and wife are shown abandoning their family home because of medical expenses. Or it could have been the interview of a man forced to choose between which fingers he wanted reattached after a buzz-saw accident. Or it might even have been the footage of hospital "dumpings" -- the ugly practice of leaving uninsured patients in the street to fend for themselves.

Regardless of what provoked the outburst (the man chose not to elaborate on his feelings) frustration with the way health care is dispensed -- and withheld -- in the United States was given full voice during a post-Sicko discussion at Cine 1-4 on Middletown Avenue Sunday night. Paul Wessel of the Universal Health Care Foundation's healthcare4every1 Campaign organized the screening.

Of the 50 people who crowded into the movie theater, some 25 stuck around after the showing to discuss how they felt about the picture, offer personal anecdotes and suggest solutions for the nation's health care system.

There was a state legislator in the crowd, State Rep. Robert Megna (D-New Haven); more than a handful of universal health care crusaders; and one cardiologist who just wishes he could spend more time with his patients instead of messing with so much paper work.

Some voiced opinions tinged with ideological fervor .("Nothing will change if we don't take power into our own hands."). Most viewers appeared to have more mundane gripes about their health care coverage: It's too complicated, requires too much paperwork, and contains an element of risk that people seem to reject when it comes to their personal health and well-being.

Several viewers called for political action to persuade Connecticut lawmakers that there is popular support for a single-payer health care system.

"We need to get people who have seen this movie to mob the state legislature and let them know we want to get rid of the insurance companies and get a single-payer system," said one audience member.

Megna answered that such initiatives were usually blocked by lobbyists, but that efforts to promote a single-payer system could convince lawmakers that there is indeed popular support for the idea.

When the question of how French-style healthcare would compare to our system in terms of cost, one white-haired woman said: "I'm not worried about how much more I'd have to pay if I had universal health care. It would just be better."

Dr. Steven Wolfson, a cardiologist, said he had observed insurance companies become as cumbersome and intrusive as a state bureaucracy over the years. He argued that insurance premiums and co-pays were no different, in essence, than a state tax, only more complicated. Dealing with multiple insurance companies, each with their own list of acceptable medical products, took time away from his patients, he added.

"I believe in the K.I.S.S. system," he said. "That means 'Keep it Simple, Stupid."

"Universal health care is simple. Everything else costs money, introduces duplications. I used to have a secretary; now I have to have an office for billing and collections because insurers' rates are all different," he went on. "When I try to figure out what drugs to give my patients, I often don't know. The time I spend figuring how to deliver care could be spent listening to patients."

Wolfson, who still works full-time even though he is past retirement age, said he spends one quarter of his workweek dealing with paperwork.