On the day of the film's Los Angeles opening on September 12, 1980, a review from Charles Champlin of the "Los Angeles Times" described the film as "essentially a revue sketch, giving the boys and girls of the chorus a chance to dress up funny and mill about. All a revue sketch needs is a thin premise, a point of view and an exit line. But having only one out of three won't make it for a movie." He concluded, "If indeed Altman weren't so original and so talented, an indulgent mess like "HealtH" would merely be another unsuccessful film in a bad year. It is instead mournful and exasperating in about equal measure."