Speaking truth to power

Thank you, Michael Moore, for refusing to pretend everything was all right when you went on the Wolf Blitzer show. You were right about not waging war in Iraq. You are right about health care.

I hope your response to Wolf Blitzer gives your film a huge bump at the box office. That would indeed be justice served! Corporate media no longer pursues journalism. It provides endless distractions and instant opinions that lead us far away from the truth.

There was a deep insight in your film, the idea that all the countries with single-payer health systems operate that way because the people in those countries demand such services. In this country, we the people allow our representatives to make decisions based upon corporate interests. We do so because we are already in debt and are afraid of making waves. We are told we are lucky to have a job, and encouraged to work long hours. Easy credit offers abound along with all the tempting must-have products on view 24 hours a day via cable and computer.

Michael Moore did a short online chat at Huffington Post after his return appearance on Larry King to debate Dr. Sanjay Gupta. It is worth reading through the comments posted there. Many more personal testimonies are joining in the chorus. We have to keep it up. Don't let the powers that be keep us in debt and fear any longer.

More on Sicko

Terra invited us all over to The Chief Source where a very animated discussion on the movie Sicko has unleashed torrents of comments!

One commenter posts:

"Currently in Mass. the state has spent over $50,000 fighting an inmate's demand for a sex change operation paid for of course by the taxpayers. In your utopia what does the system pay for and who decides, the legal system?"

An interesting question as it gets to the heart of the argument. There are those who cannot stand the idea of anybody getting anything "for free." They are horrified that a prison inmate demand a sex change operation. Why if you give in to him, soon you'll have 30,000 inmates all demanding sex change operations, some might argue. I rather doubt that very many inmates are demanding such a thing and I would point out that the money Massachusetts has spent fighting the operation could have paid for two and a half such operations.

Personally, I don't care how many inmates need sex change operations or new sets of teeth. If a medical professional says they need it, then they should get it. We saw in Sicko that even detainees in Gitmo have all their medical and dental needs taken care of (no word on possible sex change requests in that facility), so why not your average American citizen? If 45 million people in this country do not have health care and many more find their claims denied or up to their ears in medical bills and eventual bankruptcy, then it is pretty darn clear that our medical system is indeed sick and in need of some radical medicine.

Excise all those for-profit insurance corporations for starters. Single payer universal coverage is the way to go. There are a few libertarians screaming that it is unfair that they would be forced to accept govt coverage under such a system. Then I guess they should go looking for another top industrial nation that has private insurance. Hmm. Where could that be? Guess we are the only one left. That's probably why they scream so loud against any thought of change.

Meanwhile, the country that conservatives love to hate -- France -- provides the best health care on the planet. I'd stay away from Panama, that's for sure, and any other country that buys drugs from China.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In my email today, a message from Michael Moore includes a leaked memo from a Blue Shield executive who went to see Sicko. The memo includes proposed talking points to help deal with any negative backlashes the film may provoke. The memo begins with this line, " You would have to be dead to be unaffected by Moore's movie..." To read the rest of the memo, go here. Also at Moore's web page, a point by point refutation of the sickening AP "review" of his movie. I was glad to see that as the AP memo lingered among the headlines on my home page for over a week!

Review: Sicko by Michael Moore

I have very good health insurance. I'd gladly give it up for universal free coverage for all US citizens. I didn't need to see Michael Moore's new movie to come to that conclusion. However, Sicko certainly underscores my convictions. Now if it can only reach many more people and urge them on to action.

At the AMC West Market Cinema, I was disappointed that our viewing room was not jam packed with people. Friday night, prime movie time, and why wouldn't folks want to sit down to a rousing documentary? The audience that filled perhaps half of the theatre was certainly a knowledgeable one. Early in the film, we see a clip of a doctor testifying in front of congress. She admits on the record that in her job for an insurance company, she denied an operation to a man who needed it and consequently died because he didn't have it. The doctor was given a career boost for her efforts at saving the company money. Reactions shots in that scene included a glimpse of the young and very horrified Congressman Sherrod Brown. Instantly, a murmur swept across the theatre -- whispers of "Sherrrod" indicated an audience full of Democrats, and probably progressive ones at that!

How can we get people who are not aware into the theatre to see that movie? I fantasized citizen liberators taking over movieplexes nationwide and inserting Sicko into every theatre, so that the Dieharder 3 audience would have to watch Sicko before seeing Bruce Willis in action. And with the current crop of movies on screen now, I doubt many audiences would complain!

Sicko is a well-crafted documentary featuring personal health care stories -- a few familiar ones such as the LA hospitals dumping of indigent patients onto the sidewalks of Skid row, as well as plenty of sad new tales of insurance billing horror. We even get to see the very beginning of the medical insurance scam, created with the full cooperation and support of the Nixon White House. That little clip ought to be on every news show, so that people can start to realize that what one president created, another may dismantle.

Moore does an excellent job of opening our unobservant eyes. We go through life accepting that it is OK for some people not to have medical coverage, that bankruptcy from catastrophic medical bills is just "shit happening," and that the procedure your doctor wants you to have is one your insurance company says you can't have because it is "experimental" or your employer did not include it in your coverage. Medical care has become a game of chance in this country and we the people are seemingly OK with that.

Concerned about the politicians who have the power to fix things? You better believe they are in the deep with all the big medical insurance and pharmaceutical companies. Don't believe me? Go here to look at the current crop of presidential candidates. Ooops -- Hillary is at the top of the list, followed closely by Barack Obama and John Edwards on the Dem side. As for the Republicans, Romney is breathing down Hillary's neck, with McCain and Giuliani close behind.

You can bet for sure that all the leading candidates will say that they plan to reform health care, but every single plan will continue to support for-profit medical corporations in one way or another. Except for Kucinich and Gravel, of course, who continue to make perfect sense and are ignored by the mainstream.

Sicko contains amazing footage from countries that provide free medical care to all citizens, France, with the number one system in the world, even has teams of doctors on call 24 hours a day who make house calls. We get a glimpse of a country where quality of life is connected to time away from the job, whether it be to have a baby, recover from illness, or to enjoy all those hours away from the 35 hour a week job obligation. Yes, that's right -- in France workers only work 35 hours per week. If they work over time, they are compensated with more time off. And lets' not even think about those lovely five weeks of vacation every year!

Why do we let people make money off of other people's medical conditions? Why do we think it is OK to take away people's homes and savings in order to give them a life-saving procedure? Michael Moore says it is because we are kept in fear and in debt. The middle class college graduate looks for a job, already saddled with student loan debt that will take years to pay off. That graduate is not likely to rock any boats, but will take what is on offer even if it is not good enough. We are kept isolated by our debts, all our focus in on self rather than community. How convenient for the powers that be.

Go see Sicko and take someone with you, preferably someone who can be awakened to the madness and true sickness of our medical system.